Gothic London: On the Capital of Urban Fantasy in Neil Gaiman, China Miéville and Peter Ackroyd

<p>There are good reasons to call London the capital of urban fantasy. Like no other city it embodies an intertwinedness of enlightenment and modernity with notions of the occult, the mythical and the magical. The idea of an urban underworld that somehow is the dark mirror of the city is centr...

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Main Author: Arno Meteling
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona 2017-11-01
Series:Brumal: Revista de Investigación sobre lo Fantástico
Online Access:https://revistes.uab.cat/brumal/article/view/416
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spelling doaj-d4aad55770d448d3bdff50f1ba81d0fc2021-02-09T17:29:14ZengUniversitat Autònoma de BarcelonaBrumal: Revista de Investigación sobre lo Fantástico2014-79102017-11-0152658410.5565/rev/brumal.416164Gothic London: On the Capital of Urban Fantasy in Neil Gaiman, China Miéville and Peter AckroydArno Meteling0University of Cologne<p>There are good reasons to call London the capital of urban fantasy. Like no other city it embodies an intertwinedness of enlightenment and modernity with notions of the occult, the mythical and the magical. The idea of an urban underworld that somehow is the dark mirror of the city is central for the depiction of a fantastic London. I will look into three examples of urban fantasy: Neil Gaiman’s novel <em>Neverwhere</em> (1996), China Miéville’s story <em>Reports of Certain Events in London</em> (2004), and Peter Ackroyd’s novel <em>Hawksmoor</em> (1985) that portray London as a liminal space and a gothic heterotopia.</p>https://revistes.uab.cat/brumal/article/view/416
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Arno Meteling
spellingShingle Arno Meteling
Gothic London: On the Capital of Urban Fantasy in Neil Gaiman, China Miéville and Peter Ackroyd
Brumal: Revista de Investigación sobre lo Fantástico
author_facet Arno Meteling
author_sort Arno Meteling
title Gothic London: On the Capital of Urban Fantasy in Neil Gaiman, China Miéville and Peter Ackroyd
title_short Gothic London: On the Capital of Urban Fantasy in Neil Gaiman, China Miéville and Peter Ackroyd
title_full Gothic London: On the Capital of Urban Fantasy in Neil Gaiman, China Miéville and Peter Ackroyd
title_fullStr Gothic London: On the Capital of Urban Fantasy in Neil Gaiman, China Miéville and Peter Ackroyd
title_full_unstemmed Gothic London: On the Capital of Urban Fantasy in Neil Gaiman, China Miéville and Peter Ackroyd
title_sort gothic london: on the capital of urban fantasy in neil gaiman, china miéville and peter ackroyd
publisher Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
series Brumal: Revista de Investigación sobre lo Fantástico
issn 2014-7910
publishDate 2017-11-01
description <p>There are good reasons to call London the capital of urban fantasy. Like no other city it embodies an intertwinedness of enlightenment and modernity with notions of the occult, the mythical and the magical. The idea of an urban underworld that somehow is the dark mirror of the city is central for the depiction of a fantastic London. I will look into three examples of urban fantasy: Neil Gaiman’s novel <em>Neverwhere</em> (1996), China Miéville’s story <em>Reports of Certain Events in London</em> (2004), and Peter Ackroyd’s novel <em>Hawksmoor</em> (1985) that portray London as a liminal space and a gothic heterotopia.</p>
url https://revistes.uab.cat/brumal/article/view/416
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