Abstract:
The purpose of this research is to unravel the stylistic intricacies Gaiman employs to construct and manipulate these alternate worlds, understanding how such choices contribute to the overall thematic resonance of the novel.
The tasks of the work are:
- to define the term “alternative world” in literature;
- to delineate the types of alternative worlds created in literary works;
- to identify the main stylistic devices that are used to create alternative worlds in Coraline. In this master’s paper, we will analyze the novel Coraline by Neil Gaiman, which combines several artistic genres, namely fantasy and horror. N. Gaiman was born in the UK, but then moved to the USA, where he now lives. He discovered his love of books in his childhood, while reading stories of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, E. A. Poe and other well-known writers [31]. He describes himself as “feral child who was raised in libraries” [31]. That is why he decided to dedicate his life to writing. He started his writing career as a journalist in England [31]. Firstly, he wrote biographies of famous people [31], but then decided to write something entirely different, publishing his first graphic novel Violet Cases [31]. After that N. Gaiman wrote the series of Sandman that gathered a great number of US awards, becoming the first comic to receive a literary award in 1991 and the World Fantasy Award for Best Short Story. In the English literary tradition, N. Gaiman is considered to be “one of the creators of modern comics” [31].
