From acquisition to abjuration : magic and its extravagant promise in canonical and popular fantasy literature

Abstract

This dissertation seeks to analyse the use of magic in literature. Criticism on magic is surprisingly disproportionate to its prevalence as a plot device. Three texts, William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, and Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance Cycle are analysed, in order to give a balance between canonical and popular literature.

The analysis of magic in literature in this dissertation is carried out over two levels. First, two philosophical frameworks are identified. The first of these is a concept from Lacan’s Desire, which relies on an impossibility – the inability to gain recognition from an anonymous entity identified as a big Other. The second is Hegel’s Master-Slave dialectic, which heralds a certainty – that the cycle of roles between Hegel’s identified master and servant is in perpetual motion. Magic’s ascribed function of being able to accomplish the unattainable is set against these two frameworks, to analyse whether magic may supersede an impossibility or certainty. The second level of analysis manifests through this. Across the chapters on each of the texts, situations and tropes relevant to magic and character are discussed. The philosophical frameworks are implemented into analyses of magic and character. Through the discussion of characters’ attempts to magically circumvent the impossibilities championed by these concepts, a great amount of data about characters’ use of magic and their attitudes towards it, is analysed. Temptation and the desire for enough power to force recognition from an abstract Lacanian entity take priority in this character analysis. The introductory chapter establishes the frameworks, while the numbered chapters each deal with a single work, though the chapter on Paolini begins to consolidate ideas across texts.

Drawing upon this, a double conclusion is achieved. First, whether magic triumphs over the impossibilities governing the philosophical concepts, which it certainly does with Hegel. With Lacan, the result is more debatable, however magic can be said to at least partly supersede Lacan’s impossibility. The second conclusion is that, via characters’ behaviour with and around magic, authors can give a significant amount of information about said characters, and that trends can be found across magical texts. The fact that characters are consistently shown at their best when they overcome magic, and that those who give in to the temptations of Lacanian desire and attempt to acquire most power are tyrannical, for instance. While this brief analysis is certainly not adequate to conclude the place of magic in literature, it certainly begins to give insight into how magic can function as more than a plot tool.