o:2256 Growing a New Heart Intrusion fantasy and an Alternative "Club Story" in "The Ocean at the End of the Lane" en 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. Neil Gaiman, Farah Mendlesohn, intrusion fantasy, archetypal criticism, the anima, alternative worldview. 1552099 10.46630/jkal.2022.19 91552100 110118409 1552100 978-86-7379-590-4 2024-02-08T13:07:20.325Z 44 yes 46 Nataša Tučev Filozofski fakultet u Nišu 10339943 0000-0002-7542-7151 46 Bogdan Stanković Filozofski fakultet u Nišu 88849929 2022 application/pdf str. 283-293 413942 https://phaidrani.ni.ac.rs/o:2256 no yes 18 70 11 1066537 1066576 1556237 18A13 18A1308 283 293 Filozofski fakultet u Nišu 2022