The motif of protagonist’s initiation and maturation inspired by myth, the heroic epos and the magical fairy-tale and also revealing close affinity to the rites of passage seems to be one of the constitutive traits of the modern... more
The motif of protagonist’s initiation and maturation inspired by myth, the heroic epos and the magical fairy-tale and also revealing close affinity to the rites of passage seems to be one of the constitutive traits of the modern convention of Secondary World Fantasy. This article, on the basis of selected texts representing different evolutional stages and sub-genres of fantasy, undertakes an analysis of the ways the motifs in question function in particular texts, of how they are modified by other literary conventions or cultural motifs and of what results from these operations in terms of texts’ structures, axiologies and cultural messages.
