neil gaiman the ocean at the end of the lane

Keywords: Gaiman, feminism, ecofeminism, performance, fantasyīiography and contact info: Laura-Marie von Czarnowsky is currently a research assistant at the University of Cologne, where she teaches courses on fantasy, fairy tales, as well as introductory courses to literary studies. While the domesticity of the Hempstocks’ thus seems to communicate a surprisingly old-fashioned set of gender politics, continuously pointing to the constructedness of gender roles actually makes the text a postmodern meta-commentary on the performance of gender roles. Contrasting evil hypersexual femininity, which eventually has to be banished from the scene, with a benevolent nurturing femininity, the text clearly values one over the other. Evoking the image of the triple goddess of Neopaganism and connecting it to the Greek Moirai, Gaiman presents them as direct counterparts to the text’s other magical creature, the villainess Ursula Monkton, who appears as embodiment of Freud’s unruled id. Both variations of female magic empowerment can be read productively as gendered performances of the femme fatale and the godmother, used in order to effectively manipulate their human surroundings.

Gaiman’s ecofeminist vision connects the nurturing qualities of the motherly Hempstocks with the prospering magical landscape they inhabit.

At the same time, however, it can be argued that the text subverts its own feminist potential in its advocation of motherhood as paradigmatic femininity. Laura-Marie von Czarnowsky “Power and all its secrets”: Engendering Magic in Neil Gaiman’sĪbstract: Neil Gaiman’s recent adult novel, The Ocean at the End of the Lane (2013), presents the power of magic as an exclusively female concept. Fafnir – Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research, Volume 2, Issue 4, pages 18-28.

Neil gaiman the ocean at the end of the lane