Masculine Initiation in The Saga of Darren Shan

• Main Authors: Chung-chi Tan, 譚中淇
• Other Authors: Patricia Haseltine
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2008
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/98366170793158413043

碩士 === 靜宜大學 === 英國語文學系研究所 === 96 === This thesis attempts to use Jungian psychoanalysis as the foundation, along with anthropological or sociological studies of traditional rites of passages, to investigate the initiation motif in The Saga of Darren Shan. The Saga of Darren Shan is a series of teenage vampire fiction written by English writer Darren O’Shaughnessy. It is a story about an ordinary school boy’s transformation into a half-vampire. In different stages of the protagonist Darren Shan’s adventure journey, O’Shaughnessy uses the vampire legend as the central theme adding fantastic elements to elaborate initiatory themes. The first chapter gives an introduction to the vampire legend, vampire literature, the author’s background, and the story. The Saga of Darren Shan is a mingling of vampire fiction and fantasy. Although the dark and fantastic elements in the series may be regarded by some reviewers as having low literary value or status, these elements, from the psychological perspective, indeed can provide a deeper understanding of the human psyche. Chapter Two focuses on some important symbols which echo traditional rites of passage so as to discuss how O’Shaughnessy shows readers the significance of the symbol of death and the symbol of the animal in initiation and their relationships to the human psyche and male initiation. Chapter Three goes further into the psychological aspect of initiation by illustrating how the Jungian individuation is developed in the middle and late part of the Darren Shan story. Through the characterization of the masculine vampires, O’Shaughnessy makes the vampire’s society a microcosm of male society and shows readers the positive and negative influence of male’s collective initiation on the individual to remind modern readers that initiation doesn’t merely involve the fulfillment of the outer formalities of initiation. It is also important for both the initiate and the group to pay attention to the inner development of the individual. Chapter Four focuses on the role of the male mentor and indicates the similarity between the vampire relationships and male relationships in initiation. By using some classic plots of the nineteenth and twentieth century vampire fiction as comparison, I try to point out O’Shaughnessy’s revisions of the vampire conventions in this series in order to reveal the hidden homophobic emotion within. In the last chapter, I give the conclusion that O’Shaughnessy takes the vampire myth as the central course to elaborate various aspects of the initiation motif which makes The Saga of Darren Shan not merely a common vampire story but also an initiatory story providing young readers an opportunity to mediate their initiation and, further, to elevate themselves to higher modes of being.