Sofia University St. Kl. Ohridski
[nedamimi1@gmail.com]
Freedom and Identity in Guy Gavriel Kay’s Novel Tigana
Abstract: The article examines the ideas of freedom and identity in the novel “Tigana,” which is dedicated to the problem of human choice and free will. Freedom and the pursuit of one’s identity are seen in the story as an indispensable part of man’s quest for memory. The book is an epic fantasy that touches on postcolonial issues as it tries to present the voices of forcibly exiled people, the struggle for the return to the roots, to heritage, and language used as a means of oppression. One of its main points is sacrifice as a path to freedom. However, this novel shows that deciding what is evil and good is not easy, and things are not always what they seem at first glance; rather, it depends on the point of view. The novel is examined against the backdrop of the work of a genre classic like Tolkien, highlighting the intertwining of mythology, legends, and history in an amalgam alloy in which we find allusions to the present and messages for the future.
Keywords: freedom; identity; Tigana; history; fantasy.
Reference
Aligeri, D. (1949). The Divine Comedy: Hell, trans. Dorothy L. Sayers, Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Carpenter, H. (1981). The letters of JRR Tolkien (Vol. 140). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Kay, G.G. (1990). Tigana, Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Личева, А. (2019). Световен ли е „Нобел“? София: Колибри [Licheva, A. (2019). Svetoven li e „Nobel“? Sofiya: Kolibri].
Spivak, G. C. (2023). Death of a Discipline. Columbia University Press.
Tolkien, J.R.R. (1947). On Fairy-stories. Published in “Essays Presented to Charles Williams”. Oxford University Press.
Yeats, W. B. (2000). The collected poems of WB Yeats. Wordsworth Editions.