Abstract
Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series is known for its parody of the clichés of fantasy and its satirical approach to cultural and political issues. This chapter explores his revisions and parodies of masculinity in the Ankh-Morpork Guard novels, focusing on the character of Captain Carrot Ironfoundersson, with whom Pratchett deconstructs the traditional hero while constructing an appealing alternative masculinity. Although Carrot is linked to the trope of the return of the lost heir, he is not a hero who vindicates his identity through a quest that implies confrontation and violence. On the contrary, Carrot is fully aware that his decisions have ethical and political implications and, thus, he decides to serve his fellow citizens as a policeman rather than their king, approaching power through service rather than authority.
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Notes
- 1.
Bröckling considers that heroes are “morally regulated deviants. Their deeds may bring them into conflict with what is right and lawful, but their exemplariness is beyond question” (2019: 40).
- 2.
This is, in general terms, the narrative structure proposed by Campbell (1949), who links it to processes of individuation, hence supposedly the status of a universal, generally appealing narrative.
- 3.
Rank (1909) proposes a narrative where the hero is predestined by birth to occupy a position of power. To prevent this fate, he is abandoned and, later, miraculously saved and raised by putative figures. When he reaches maturity, he returns home and fulfils his destiny, attaining glory and regaining his position as a king or leader.
- 4.
In the last confrontation with Wolfgang, Angua and Vimes become Carrot’s rescuers.
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Clúa, I. (2023). Masculinity and Heroism in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld: The Case of Good Captain Carrot. In: Martín, S., Santaulària, M.I. (eds) Detoxing Masculinity in Anglophone Literature and Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22144-6_11
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