2022 Tučev, Nataša Stanković, Bogdan http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode Growing a New Heart : Intrusion fantasy and an Alternative "Club Story" in "The Ocean at the End of the Lane" info:eu-repo/semantics/conferenceObject https://phaidrani.ni.ac.rs/o:2256 doi:10.46630/jkal.2022.19 cobiss:110118409 application/pdfstr. 283-293 413942 bytes Filozofski fakultet u Nišu Jezik, književnost, alternative / Language, Literature, Alternatives : književna istraživanja : zbornik radova, Filozofski fakultet u Nišu, 2022, str. 283-293 In The Ocean at the End of the Lane (2013), Neil Gaiman constructs a fantasy world in order to dramatize a young boy’s psychological crisis in the face of threatening changes in his social environment. A sense of intrusion permeates the narrative: it is both the intrusion of the adults’ greed and corruption into the boy’s life and the corresponding intrusion of the fantastic into consensus reality. The motif of intrusion is analysed in this paper by referring to Farah Mendlesohn’s Rhetorics of Fantasy (2008), where the author defines intrusion fantasy as one of the four basic categories of the fantastic. An important term used in Mendlesohn’s discussion is a “club story”, which refers to any kind of discourse on consensus reality that the “club members” accept in its entirety and whose authority they never question. In an intrusion fantasy, the protagonist is usually the only one who is outside of the club story and capable of perceiving the intrusion of a dangerous otherworldly element that the others deny. The same is true for the unnamed protagonist of Gaiman’s novel. However, he is not completely isolated in his recognition of danger, as he finds allies in three archetypal feminine figures. With them, the boy shares an alternative club story, one which is characterized by a more comprehensive knowledge of reality and the self. eng OSNO - Opšta sistematizacija naučnih oblasti, Engleska književnost OSNO - Opšta sistematizacija naučnih oblasti, Engleska književnost Neil Gaiman, Farah Mendlesohn, intrusion fantasy, archetypal criticism, the anima, alternative worldview.