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Camus, Cyril. Myth and Fabulation in the Fantasy Fiction of Neil Gaiman. Jefferson: McFarland, 2026. 
Added by: joachim (14/08/2026, 16:18)   Last edited by: joachim (14/08/2026, 16:35)
Resource type: Book
Language: en: English
Published
ID no. (ISBN etc.): 978-1-4766-9918-9
BibTeX citation key: Camus2026
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 Categories: General
Keywords: Fantasy, Gaiman. Neil, Intertextuality, Metaisierung, Myth, Postmodernism, United Kingdom
Creators: Camus
Publisher: McFarland (Jefferson)		 Views: 17/42
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Abstract
Available in English for the first time, this wide-ranging critical study examines Neil Gaiman’s fiction through the lenses of intertextuality, metafiction, and cultural context. Informed by comics, novels, short stories, and film, Camus situates Gaiman’s oeuvre within a literary network that includes Alan Moore, Shakespeare, Borges, Philip José Farmer, Jack Kirby, and Winsor McCay. The study explores how myth operates across Gaiman’s fiction as both an inherited narrative and an evolving cultural practice, shaping the meaning and structure of his works.
Through both theoretical perspective and close analysis of sources, the book posits fabulation as a form of mythmaking, through which Gaiman’s works both expose and participate in the mechanisms of fantasy. Central to the argument is the stance that Gaiman’s fiction stages itself as a pseudo-myth, using self-reflection to reveal how fantasy partakes in both the construction and renewal of authority, tradition, and belief. The updated English translation is augmented with additional commentary and a new preface that traces the book’s research as well as recent accusations against Gaiman, situating the study within more contemporary contexts.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vi
Preface 1
Introduction 11

I. Dealing with Genres, Media, Fabulation and Myth 17
 1. Conditionalism and Essentialism 19
 2. Fantasy: Categories and Ideal 30
 3. The Metaphor of Mythopoesis 35

II. Gaiman and Myth: Inventory and Typology 41
 4. Moore, Gaiman and the Superhero Myth 43
 5. Gaiman and Mythopoetic Fiction 76
 6. Gaiman, Avary, Zemeckis and the Myth(s) of Beowulf 100

III. Myth(s) of the Storyteller; or, Postmodern Fantasy 105
 7. Popular Fiction and Theories of Postmodernism 107
 8. Mythical Intertexts and Postmodern Approaches 110
 9. Metafiction and the Myth of the Storyteller 139
10. Fabulation and Experimental Fiction 167

IV. Pseudo-Mythical Strategies 179
11. Collective Creation, Imaginative Expansion and Dissemination 181
12. Mythical Themes and Mythopoetic Structures 193

Conclusion 209
Bibliography 215
Index 225


Added by: joachim  Last edited by: joachim
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