Reinterpreting the Traditional Portal Fantasy in Erin Morgenstern’s Novel ‘The Starless Sea’

The article analyzes the novel The Starless Sea (2019) by American fantasy author Erin Morgenstern. This novel belongs to the modern branch of fantasy literature that reimagines and transforms the traditions and clichés of the genre. The analysis is based on the typology of fantasy suggested by Farah Mendlesohn in her book Rhetorics of Fantasy (2008). According to this typology, The Starless Sea refers to the type of portal, or quest, fantasy, where the protagonist goes through a portal and comes from the mundane world to a fantasy one. The article explores how the key features of portal fantasy are manifested in the Morgenstern’s novel. The text is mainly analyzed at the levels of the plot and the system of characters. In The Starless Sea one can find most of the typical portal fantasy elements, but all of them are presented in a subverted version: not only the order of their appearance but also the meaning of these elements is changed dramatically. The central position of the protagonist is placed in question, and so is the possibility to gain complete and accurate information about the world even from the sources that have always been considered trustworthy in the traditional portal fantasy, such as guide figures and books. Instead of the eternal conflict between good and evil, the main focus of the novel is on the problems of storytelling, constructing and understanding the narratives, building your own interpretation of the world. The protagonists’ quest is also a subject of investigation and comprehension, it is not only about receiving and fulfilling a task. The main part of this quest appears to consist not in a confrontation with the antagonist, but in a steadfast following the plot line and in finishing the story. These transformations of traditional elements of the portal fantasy make the protagonist’s experience closer to that of the reader and reflect the postmodern worldview.