Features of the chronotop in the novel "The collector" by John Fowles

Размещено на http://www.allbest.ru/

Features of the chronotop in the novel “The collector” by John Fowles

Kushnirova T.V., Doctor of Philology, Associate Professor of the Department of World Literature, Poltava V. G. Korolenko National Pedagogical University

Summary

chronotop novel fowles collector

In the article the features of the chronotopes of the novel “The Collector” by British writer John Fow- les. The purpose of this study is to analyze the chronotopes of the work, which are united in the structure of the novel, and complete a common chronotope that influences the genre modification of the work. Details are researched time-spaces in their relationship and hierarchy. There are three types of chronotopes in the novel (historical, personal, social and life mode chronotopes). The chronotope in the novel is characterized by heterogeneity and chaotic, which is directed by an active narrator. Artistic time has a variable form: the puppet time is closely interwoven with the plot, and although it is based on the actual course of events, it is complicated by narrative techniques that slow down, pause, or interrupt the plot time. Narrative time is characterized by psychologism, which is transmitted through a diary, and suggests authenticity and subjectivity in the reproduction of events. This formal component updates two personal chronotopes, which are sharply opposite and show the degradation of characters. In the article stand out features of the individual style of the writer, as well as communication with the literary tradition.

Key words: John Fowles, “The Collector”, motive, chronotope, genre, style, dominant, literary tradition.

Кушнірова Т. В. Особливості хронотопу в романі «Колекціонер» Джона Фаулза

Анотація. У статті аналізуються особливості часопростору в романі «Колекціонер» британського письменника ХХ століття Джона Фаулза. Метою статті став всебічний аналіз хронотопів твору, котрі у структурі роману, об'єднуючись, виформовують загальний хронотоп, який впливає на жанрову модифікацію роману. Ґрунтовно досліджуються хронотопи (історичний, соціальний, особи- стісний), їх взаємозв'язок та ієрархія. Хронотоп у романі характеризується неоднорідністю та хаотичністю, що скеровується активним наратором. Художній час має змінну форму: фабульний час тісно переплітається із сюжетним і, хоча ґрунтується на реальному перебігу подій, ускладнюється наративними прийомами, котрі уповільнюють, призупиняють або переривають сюжетний час. Нара- тивний час характеризується психологізмом, що спровоковано щоденниковою формою оповіді, яка передбачає достовірність і суб'єктивність у відтворенні подій. Така формальна складова частина актуалізує два особистісні хронотопи, що є різко протилежними та демонструють деградацію персонажів. У статті аналізується жанровий зміст, окреслюються жанрові і стильові домінанти, простежуються основні мотиви. Визначаються особливості індивідуального стилю письменника, а також зв'язок із літературною традицією.

Ключові слова: Фаулз Джон, «Колекціонер», мотив, хронотоп, жанр, стиль, домінанта, літературна традиція.

Кушнирова Т. В. Особенности хронотопа в романе «Коллекционер» Джона Фаулза

Аннотация. В статье анализируются особенности пространства и времени в романе «Коллекционер» британского писателя ХХ века Джона Фаулза. Целью статьи стал всесторонний анализ хронотопов произведения, которые в структуре романа, объединяясь, формируют общий хронотоп, который влияет на жанровую модификацию романа. Основательно исследуются исторический, социальный, личностный хронотопы, их взаимосвязь и иерархия. Хронотоп в романе характеризуется неоднородностью и хаотичностью, что продуцируется дие- гетическим рассказчиком. Художественное время имеет переменную форму: фабульное время переплетается с сюжетным и, хотя основывается на реальных топосах, осложняется нарративными приемами, которые замедляют, приостанавливают или прерывают сюжетное время. Нарративное время характеризуется психологизмом, что подтверждается дневниковой формой повествования и предусматривает достоверность и субъективность при воспроизведении событий. Формальная составляющая актуализирует два личностных хронотопа, которые являются резко противоположными и демонстрируют деградацию персонажей. В статье анализируется жанровый смысл, определяются жанровые и стилевые доминанты, прослеживаются основные мотивы. Определяются особенности индивидуального стиля писателя, а также связь с литературной традицией.

Ключевые слова: Фаулз Джон, «Коллекционер», мотив, хронотоп, жанр, стиль, доминанта, литературная традиция.

Formulation of the problem

John Fowles is one of the famous British writers, whose novels is known all over the world and are of ongoing considerable interest to its readers. The novels “The Magus” (1965), “The French Lieutenant's Woman” (1969), as well as the biographical novel “Daniel Martin” (1977), “Mantissa” (1982), and “A Maggot” (1985) have been translated several times into many languages of the world. The most famous one is his first published novel “Collector” (1960), the story of the death of the beautiful Miranda, the next “butterfly” from the collection of a collector of rare samples by Frederic Clegg. This story is also interesting for readers today. Literary critics have repeatedly analyzed the artistic work of John Fowles (J. Rackham, S. Bagchee, P. Nodelman, A. Jodar, K. Solodovnik, N. Bochkareva, E. Amineva, ets). In these studies, the problems of genre, style, and the motive are considered, but a thorough analysis of chronotopes on the material of the novels of the artist was not made in modern literary criticism. The purpose of our work is to analyse John Fowles's artistic prose, as well as to define the types of chronotopes in the novel “Collector”, their relationship and hierarchy, which includes a large genre form in the literature of postmodernism.

Statement of the base material

A feature of John Fowles's creativity is “extraordinary poetry, combined with realism, almost cruelty, in depicting life” [1, p. 293]. Denre experiments are particular for the creativity of John Fowles. The most famous work of this author is the novel “Collector”, “philosophical and psychological, realistic and grotesque novel about confrontation with mass society and mass culture” [1, p. 294]. The story of the “Collector” novel is simple and ordinary: Frederick Clegg, a clerk who won a lot in the lottery falls in love with art school student Miranda Gray, which he steals and forcibly keeps in the basement of his house. Clegg believes that the girl, communicating with him only, will be able to understand him better and eventually will fall in love with him. The plot of the novel is traditional for romantic literature, but John Fowles shifts the emphasis, transferring the plot to the psychological level. Such an approach actualises existential and psychological motifs, which are considered to be constant for the work.

The concept “chronotope” in literary studies has not been sufficiently studied so far. Both dictionaries and individual literary scholars outline its own boundaries of this concept defining different types of chronotopes (adventurous, domestic, chronotope of “biographical time”, folklore, Rabelaisian, chronotope of chivalrous romance, idyllic, family idyllic, mysterious, etc.) [2-4]. Time and space are determined by the era of writing a work and associated with certain motives. The chronotope acts as a form-forming factor, which outlines the boundaries of the artistic world. The chrono- tope in the novel also performs the structure-forming function: reproduces the relationship between the spaces of the author-creator and the protagonist, combines the point of view finds the value of spatial-temporal images and analyzes the macro world of its characters in the unity of spatial and temporal aspects [2, p. 1173]. Each era has its own constant and dominant chronotopes and related motives. Chronotope plays a significant role in determining the genre of a work, because it acts as a formative factor which outlines the boundaries of the artistic world. It becomes the organizational center of the novel's plot (M. Bakhtin) and a component that defines the genre and style of the work. The artistic space is divided into real and fantastic, closed and open (Y. Lotman), terrestrial and cosmic, real and fictitious, close and distant (V. Khaliszev). It simulates “various connections of the world picture: temporal, social, ethical, etc.” [4, c. 414]. The spatial layers are combined with plot and composition. They are connected with the artistic design of the writer, a system of motives and images.

The artistic time is biographical (childhood, youth, maturity, old age), historical (characteristics of the change of days and generations, significant events in the life of society), cosmic (the idea of eternity and world history), calendar (change of seasons, everyday life, holidays), daily, etc. Artistic time in the work is conditionally divided into three types: fable time, narrative time and plot time [3, p. 726].

The chronotope in the “Collector” is heterogeneous and is chaotic. The narrative time is manifested in three varieties. The boundaries of the plot time are defined by the reader independently, which is under the influence of the peculiarities of an individual's existence. This type of time is represented by Miranda's time in the basement, which is about a month (6 weeks). The fable time is closely intertwined with the plot, and although based on a real course of events, however complicated by narrative techniques, which slow down, stop or interrupt the plot time.

The third kind of artistic time (narrative time), adds a novel of originality, becomes a stylistic feature of the author, which creates a unique artistic world. Narrative time is characterized by deep psy- chologicalism, which manifests itself through the diary. I remember a night we went out and had supper at a posh restaurant. It was on a list the pools people gave us. It was good food, we ate it but I didn't hardly taste it because of the way people looked at us and the way the slimyforeign waiters and everybody treated us, and how everything in the room seemed to look down at us because we weren't brought up their way [5, p. 10]. The form of narrative is authentic and subjective, which represents the outlook of Clegg and Miranda. This specificity of time is related to the form of the novel.

The narrative in the novel is given from the standpoint of retrospection, since the essay has the form of a diary, rather diary in the diary. “Collector” consists of four parts, where three parts are submitted through a man's vision, obsessed with love and the last part is the confession of the imprisoned girl. Miranda is locked up by Clegg so she describes the events from the point of view of the victim, and her position is characterized by a purely “feminine look” on the situation. The novel is constructed in such a way that one and the same event is presented from different perspectives, which differ from each other. The last two parts are under the view as a kind of a finale in the tragic history, which is given through the angle of vision of a mentally ill person (Clegg), because at this time due to his illness (physical) Miranda is no longer able to think soberly and analyze the situation. The diary format of the novel is actualized by two personal chronotopes, which are sharply opposite and show the degradation of characters.

Social-life mode chronotope written by the author in detail is closely connected with personality chronotopes of the characters. This is precisely how the time ofthe novel is outlined. From Clegg's story, the reader knows that events take place in the second half of the twentieth century, since Frederick mentions years, related to his childhood and adolescence. For example, when the boy was two years old, his father was killed: My father was killed driving. I was two. That was in 1937 [5, p. 5]; and Uncle Dick died when the boy was fifteen, in 1950. Clegg's story is presented in chronological order however, sometimes interrupted by his memories, which the author is introducing to reveal the psychology of the protagonist.

The social-life mode chronotope reproduces external factors that influenced the formation of the personality: this is the story of his childhood (the reader will find out that the hero grew up without a family, he was brought up by his aunt and uncle), and showing his relationship at work (the hero was locked in himself and constantly suffered from the jokes of colleagues), and a life mode chronotope (depicting his house after winning).

Life mode chronotope is determined because it is considered to be central in characterizing the distinction features of characters. Miranda looks in detail at the interior, because life mode details characterize the girl. Seeing the collection of butterflies the girl thinks of the man as a killer which kills not only a living organism, but also has no aesthetic taste. “They're beautiful. But sad”. “Everything's sad if you make it so”, I said. “But it's you who make it so!” She was staring at me across the drawer. “How many butterflies have you killed?” “You can see.” “No, I can't. I'm thinking of all the butterflies that would have come from these if you'd let them live. I'm thinking of all the living beauty you've ended” [5, p. 68].

In the social and domestic space you can see the expanses of London as Sussex, Lewis (dominated by the last two) which outlines the authenticity of the narrative. The house that Frederick bought to imprison Miranda located in Sussex, and Clegg went shopping to the city of Lewis. The life of the boy before the kidnapping of Miranda is connected with London. All these places help to show the social-life mode chronotope, associated with personal chronotopes.

Personal chronotopes is especially circumstanced in the novel. Clegg is positioned as an average person, which sees himself as unique, however, is quite limited. The character believes that society is hostile to him, so he feels safer in solitude. Clegg is a person who suffers from complexes, so his favorite thing to do was to collect butterflies. But the sudden lucky chance when he got a lot of money makes the hero unique (how he positions himself), which resulted in psychological degradation. He's a victim of a miserable Nonconformist suburban world and a miserable social class, the horrid timid copycatting genteel in-between class [5, p. 171]. Frederic went to the “new level” of collecting: he decided to replace the butterflies with women. The first victim was Miranda: I am one in a row of specimens [5, p. 217]. Clegg's character is clearly revealed in life mode chronotopes, when the hero prepares the room for the girl. Clegg kidnaps Miranda and tries to please her: cook food, clean, buy different things, etc., however, cannot overcome his own complexes and his inability to live in the society. He is slowly degradating. He is lonely, so he wants to make the girl love him. In the final he becomes a killer (although he denies this fact) and a real maniac because he finds a new victim for his “collection”.

Clegg's internal chronotope, in which the degradation of his soul is reproduced, coexists with an external, social, which in the artistic world of the novel are closely intertwined. Miranda's personal chronotope is interwoven with the historical chronotope, which is retrospectively reproduced in the diary of the woman-character. The diary of Miranda is dated, which makes the narrative credible. So the reader will find out that she was in prison from October to December. A closed space has the ability to stretch and slow down: Seven days ago. It seems like it was seven weeks [5, p. 125]. In the diary, Miranda describes her stay in prison, however, due to penetration into a biographical chronotope and reception of retrospection, the girl shows the reader her usual life. The memories of the character expand the space of the work, because it describes also the expanses of France and Spain.

Miranda in memoirs leads the reader to the background of her memory, since the actual chronotope is characterized by closeness and limited capacity. The girl could not move free at home, she was always locked up in the basement. In addition, she can't read newspapers, listen to the radio, watch TV, communicate with someone else but Frederick. Miranda was isolated from the world, but still could read books, draw sketches, but lack of news and communication with different people led her to degradation: It is not that I have forgotten what other people are like. But other people seem to have lost reality. The only real person in my world is Caliban (so Miranda called Frederic, Intertext from “The Tempest” by V. Shakespeare - T. K.) [5, p. 148]. Clegg and Miranda belonged to different social strata. The girl considered herself a highly educated person, which had a lot of talents, which represented her uniqueness. Such superiority of Miranda did not allow her to understand and to adopt the point of view of another person in general as well as to understand the actions of each other. The girl had the opportunity to realize her place in the world, her existential purpose, but the pride itself did not allow her to be realized, because she could not tolerate mediocrity of her being. The girl enters an unequal struggle with her enslaver, trying to escape, to gain freedom, but she fails. Miranda loves life and does not want to die, but Clegg's depression and indifference lead to her physical death (part III), which actually means the end of her lifetime.

Conclusions

Consequently, in the novel “Collector” by John Fowles organically combines several types of chronotopes, which create a unique author's style. The personal chronotopes of characters are the central ones, which form the personality of men and women, who afterwords are slowly degrading and devalueing. Personality chronotopes are characterized by closeness and limited ability (Miranda is in a closed space, while Clegg is a social recluse). The disclosure of a personal chronotope contributes to the formal component of the work: the narrative is reproduced in the form of a diary which allows you to have a look at the events through the angle of view of both characters. All chronotopes are interconnected and complement each other, leading to a deeper understanding of artistic reality. Any kind of chronotope in the novel (personal, historical, social and life mode) associated with deep psychology, which makes it possible to deliniate the degradation of the main characters. Protagonist perceive events differently, which leads to misunderstanding between the characters, their degradation. Therefore, the death of the heroes (physical (Miranda) and spiritual (Clegg)) is predictable. Such interconnection and interdependence of the chronotopes of the novel create not only a complex artistic world of the second half of the twentieth century, but also give an opportunity to attribute this work to the literature of postmodernism.

References

chronotop novel fowles collector

1. Кузьменко В.І., Гарачковська О.О., Кузьменко М.В. Історія зарубіжної літератури ХХ ст.: навч. посіб. К.: ВЦ «Академія», 2010. 496 с.

2. Литературная энциклопедия терминов и понятий / под ред. А.Н. Николюкина. М.: НПК «Интелвак», 2001. 1600 с.

3. Літературознавчий словник-довідник / за ред. РТ. Гром'яка, Ю.І. Ковалева, В.І. Теремка. К.: «Академія», 2006. 752 с.

4. Лотман Ю.М. Статьи по семиотике культуры и искусства. СПб.: Академический проект, 2002. 544 с.

5. Fowles John. The Collector. Boston; Toronto: Little, Brown and Company, 1963. 305 p.

6. Smethurst Paul. The Postmodern Chronotype: Reading Space and Time in Contemporary Fiction. Amsterdam-Atlanta: Rodopi, 2000. 335 c.

Размещено на Allbest.ru