The undergraduate thesis introduces the life and works of the British author Philip Pullman and his His Dark Materials trilogy. It focuses on the research of works which influenced this trilogy and on the reception of the trilogy. In its main part, the undergraduate thesis focuses on the motif of Dust from the His Dark Materials trilogy. It first defines what motif is and proves that Dust from the trilogy is a motif and then deals with three aspects of this motif. It links the motif of Dust with Plato’s, Hegel’s and Spinoza’s philosophical discussions about matter and spirit and explains how Pullman used the motif of Dust to create his own philosophy of matter and spirit in the books from his trilogy. In its next part, the undergraduate thesis shows how the motif of Dust is connected to ecology. It describes the position that this motif has in the circle of life, its ability to recycle spirit and its position in the symbiotic relationship of trees with large fruits and mulefas, the creatures from the trilogy. In its last part, the undergraduate thesis focuses on the religious aspect of the motif of Dust. It shows how this motif is connected to the story about the fall of man and explains how and why the negative connotation that this story usually holds, slowly disappears through the course of the trilogy with the help of the motif of Dust. Finally the undergraduate thesis also reveals what religious belief is introduced by the trilogy.
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