Сакральна та гріховна їжа в літературі фентезі: мотиви причастя та гріхопадіння

This paper explores symbolic and narrative aspects of food portrayals in fantasy fiction, focusing on the acts of consumption that acquire sacred or profane dimensions with regard to worldbuilding and the heroes’ quests. Drawing on theoretical frameworks from Rudolf Otto and Mircea Eliade, as well as contemporary fantasy scholarship, the study examines how food-related hierophanies (manifestations of the sacred through food consumption) function across a range of fantasy texts. The research takes into account different approaches to fantasy worldbuilding that determine the degree to which recognisable primary world motifs and imagery shape narratives. Tolkien’s Legendarium is shown to implement sacred food and communal meals as means of resacralisation and establishing symbolic fellowships within a desacralised age. In C. S. Lewis’s Narnia series, the consumption of forbidden food establishes patterns of temptation and the Fall, directly echoing Biblical imagery. Terry Pratchett parodies these traditions through comic yet profound explorations of alimentary practices, destabilising rigid boundaries between the categories of the sacred and profane. R. F. Kuang and Philip Pullman expand the motif of Communion toward postcolonial and liberal frameworks: Kuang’s “Babel” turns personal food-related memories into loci of identity and rebellion against the system, whereas Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” transforms the original sin into an intimate and sensual Communion-through-Fall scene. Across these diverse narratives, alimentary discourse emerges as a nexus of memory, community and resistance, simultaneously grounding characters in cultural traditions and opening pathways to the numinous and the transcendental. The paper demonstrates the diversity of food-related hierophanies in contemporary metagenre of fantasy, rife with parody, reinvention and postcolonial re-imaginings.