THE NOSTALGIA BEHIND THE DECONSTRUCTION OF DEATH AND ITS PERSONIFICATION IN TERRY PRATCHETT’S DISCWORLD

Abstract

The paper explores the portrayals of nostalgia and the notion of death in the popular fantasy book series Discworld, written by Terry Pratchett. In the novels, death is not depicted as a mere natural phenomenon but rather as a recurring, fully developed character whose role throughout the series is manifold and essential to convey the author’s underlying doctrine. Firstly, the paper is to briefly demonstrate the relevant perspectives on nostalgia by Davis (1979), Boym (2001,2007), and Salmose (2019) and their relation to the topic of the paper. The following part is to exemplify Pratchett’s illustrations of death and the nostalgia they convey, as well as to uncover the philosophy behind the deconstruction of conventional supposition towards humanness and dying. The character of Death simultaneously functions as an objective observer of humanity and a subjective participant who frequently fails to meet the criteria of being a human. It is precisely through these instances that Pratchett invokes the uniquely human mixture of follies and decency he glorifies throughout his oeuvre. The analysis is generated by presenting different narratives centered on the character of Death, which often encompass nostalgic views on the simplicity of life in the past and the loss of human essence associated with the deteriorating social values of the contemporary era. Therefore, the research aims to investigate Pratchett’s purportedly nostalgic personification of death in relation to his depiction of the aforementioned concerns.