Between Rhetoric and World-Making: The Case of Rafał Orkan’s Novels "Głową w mur" and "Dziki Mesjasz"

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze two fantasy novels by Rafał Orkan, Głową w mur (2009) and Dziki Mesjasz (2009), which are part of the unfinished trilogy Paramythia Vakkerby. Orkan’s novels are analyzed in the context of the recently discussed terms of allotopia and world-building in fantasy studies. The main thesis of this analysis is that although these terms work very well for describing transmedial fictional worlds, in the case of purely literary works, processes typical of any prose, including non-fantasy, occur as a result of the dependency of world-presentation on the narrative. Moreover, the conscious manipulation of the narrative in the novel, for example, by limiting the narrative perspective or combining different perspectives, may make it difficult to clearly classify the fiction being read in terms of its genre. This is exactly what happens in Orkan’s novels, which prove to be a hybrid between fantasy and science fiction. Since this genre oscillation concerns the most basic element of every fantasy, namely the fictional world, novels constructed in this way largely resemble—according to Brian McHale’s well-known theory—classic postmodern novels, the most important feature of which is the „ontological uncertainty” regarding the fictional world.