Extract

Luis ESPINOSA

Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

Introduction

The Discworld, a flat, alternate world to ours created by the British author Sir Terry Pratchett, is the setting for a phenomenal literary success in terms of sales and criticism. By the time this paper is written, forty fantasy novels set in the Discworld have been published in thirty-seven different languages, having sold over 70 million copies worldwide1. Many different beings such as vampires, undead, trolls or werewolves populate this “world and mirror of worlds”2, and archetypical fantastic elements like dragons, magic, time travel, afterlife and automata are present.

While the Discworld novels were initially developed as a parody of the type of genre inspired by Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings3, they started re-shaping as a unique science-fiction and fantasy series of books that include themes such as racism, technology, social inequalities, war or sexism, all in a growingly dark and somber environment4.

Another element to highlight with regard to the Discworld novels is the vast amount of references they include, not only to other literary works, but also contextual elements from our own world, folklore and fairy tales, legends, ← 301 | 302 → and popular culture in general. In addition, a reader will find several analogies to historical events and persons when reading the Discworld novels5.

While the Discworld is a heterogeneous setting where countries or continents that differ largely among themselves exist, this paper focuses on the vibrant Discworld...