Pravo na grad u urbanoj fantastici Terryja Pratchetta / The Right to the City in Terry Pratchett’s Urban Fantasy

Abstract

This paper examines how representations of everyday life in urban fantasy, insofar as they lie outside the utopian and the dystopian, reflect real anxieties, but also desires and needs, related to urban development and life in cities. Fantasy excellently expresses numerous social problems and tackles the issues of gender, racial, and class identities in a unique way. Significant historical, political, and social issues are also woven into the fantasy narratives through the literary representation of the lived space, but how they thematize the problems dealt with by urban sociology and critical urban theory, especially those related to the concept of "right to the city", are almost unexplored. Through the example of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, it will be investigated which practices of everyday life correspond with some of the most significant conclusions and requirements of critical urban theory. The work of urban theorists such as Henri Lefebvre, Alan Jacobs, Donald Appleyard, Jane Jacobs, and others will be consulted. J. R. R. Tolkien believed that fantasy appeals to the reader because its narratives are shaped around basic human desires. It will be shown how, by fueling the fantasy of a dialectic between a space of adventure and a place of safety, a vibrant and fulfilling practice of urban everyday life, and a community that actively participates in it, this kind of literature can help to mobilize these desires and encourage work on the appropriation of urban space.