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3Litera
Reference:
Borunov A.B., Ustinovskaya A.A. Fictional worlds of fantasy and "magical" prose as a space for generating supertext // Litera. 2024. № 3. DOI: 10.25136/2409-8698.2024.3.69851 EDN: IEYBKV URL: https://en.nbpublish.com/library_read_article.php?id=69851
Fictional worlds of fantasy and "magical" prose as a space for generating supertext
Borunov Artem Borisovich
ORCID: 0000-0003-2507-7218 PhD in Philology
/Associate Professor, Department of History of Journalism and Literature, IVbscow State Uni\ersity named
after AS. Griboysdov
111024, Russia, IVbscow, highway Enthusiasts, 21 E3 borunov.artem@yandex.ru
Ustinovskaya Alena Aleksandrovna
ORCID: 0000-0001-5381-0777 Doctor of Philology
/Associate Professor, Department of Foreign Languages and Intercultural Communication, Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education Russian State Uni\ersity of Social Technologies.
Losinoostro\«ka^a str., 49, IVbscow, 107150, Russia El alyonau1@yandex.ru
Article was published in rubric "Literary criticism"
DOI:
10.25136/2409-8698.2024.3.69851
EDN:
IEYBKV
Received:
14-02-2024
Abstract: In this paper, the author addresses the features of the supertexts based on the modern Russian novels, namely postmodern works, the genre of which can be defined as fantasy. One of the areas of research is the interpretation of the author's myth, as well as understanding the role of myth in literature. The subject of the study is an end-to-end code
that unites the prosaic macrocycles of modern authors as a supertext unity. The object of the study is the macrotext as a format of a literary work in the literature of modern Russian writers. The authors consider in detail such aspects of the topic as the cross-cutting theme of an alien / adopted / unrecognized / illegitimate child and its connection with the genus and family, and the implementation of this theme in novels combined into trilogies or macrocycles. Both general scientific research methods and specialized philological ones were used in the article, namely: the method of qualitative content analysis and the narrative method, the methods of idealization and deduction are secondary methods of working with the material. The leading method was the interpretation of literary texts, which were the source of the parktic research material. The main function of the myth is to reflect a certain image of reality, being an add-on above it, containing specific semantic models and roles distributed among the characters, and also an expression of the author's position. The author's myth can be described as a playful, mosaic, inverse construct. The conclusions presented in the article can be used in further analysis of the work of modern writers, as well as when working with the concept of "author's myth" and studying the transformation of myth (both archaic and social, cultural, etc.) in modern postmodern literature. A special contribution of the authors to the research of the topic is the consideration of this motif in its diversified interpretation in various works and the connection of this motif with the onomastic code of works as one of the principles of the formation of a supertext.
Keywords:
author's myth, modern prose, postmodernism, postmodernist myth, intertext, novels,
Russian writers, literary creative activity, literary genres, supertext
References
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Peer Review
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The problem of organizing fictional worlds, worlds of the fantasy order, is not so new in principle, however, it requires consideration on new artistic material. Actually, this is what the reviewed work is focused on, which in the title manifests a problematic scientific alignment - "fictional worlds of fantasy and "magical" prose as a space for generating supertext." It is worth noting that such an angle of consideration of the problem is constructive, new, and methodologically correct. The author does not exclude the presence in "fantasy" and "magical" prose of an impulse to create a supertext. Practically at the beginning of the work, it is indicated that "the tendency to the formation of supertexts in the fantasy genre is explained, first of all, by the creation in the work of a certain artistic world, often significantly different from reality. The detailed study of this world, coupled with the commercial success of the first novels in the series, encourages the author to continue the cycle, which often grows spontaneously." The literary context attracts in the work: "many domestic masters of the genre gravitate towards supertexts: for example, the series "Watches" by Sergei Lukyanenko, which includes seven books authored by Lukyanenko and four books co-authored with other writers (as of 2023), the series "Tanya Grotter" (16 books for 2023) and "Methodius Buslaev" (19 books for 2023) Dmitry Yemts,
the Wolfhound series by Maria Semenova (6 books for 2023), numerous cycles, trilogies and tetralogies by Alexey Pekhov, cycles and series by Karina Demina, etc." Further references to the novels by D. Rubina, M. Elizarov, etc. It is not bad that the theoretical qualification falls on a classic series of studies: "Let's turn to the interpretation of myth as such in philology and, further, to the study of the author's myth in the postmodern novel, to which the author's next work was devoted [13]. So, there are many interpretations of the concept: A. F. Losev, Yu. M. Lotman, Ya. Golosovker, F. H. Cassidy, E. M. Meletinsky, M. M. Bakhtin, as well as K. G. Jung, R. Barth, K. Huebner, R. Kayua, E. Cassirer, K. Levi-Strauss and many others studied the question of defining the myth, combining the concept with literature, art in general, culture, politics, economics, psychology, sociology, linguistics...". Therefore, the support / basis is still verified and accurate. The work is not devoid of an analytical component, fragmentation, detail makes it possible for the author to segment the difference in the impulsive nature of the supertext. Citations as an argument are fully introduced into the text: "in the case of Yelizarov, we are dealing with a layer of raised, reinterpreted — and reinterpreted in a new way carnival culture. The fact that Sorokin, Pelevin and other "militant postmodernists" imitated the rite and were furnished with appropriate decorations: cardboard swords, cranberry juice, the triumph of the "corporeal bottom" marking virtual abysses — in Elizarov's novels becomes overgrown with flesh and requires not an abstract worldview, but effective intervention, in other words— participation in the rite" etc. The work has both theoretical and practical significance, the material is appropriate to use when studying the course of the history of modern Russian literature. Variations of the assessment are given by the author in the mode of a brief review: "in postmodernism, the myth retains its function and contains a complete picture of the world. And if we say that a myth reflects a certain image of reality, but is not an objective reality, then such an attitude in postmodernism is brought to the point of absurdity," or "Postmodernism is a technological phenomenon, and the influence of the latest electronic technologies on the life of society and an individual is so great that an attempt to abstract from them when considering any field life in the 21st century hardly looks reasonable. Postmodernism seeks to comprehend and bring to life the technological nature of the new reality. It is chronological uncertainties combined with terminological ambiguities that create the main difficulties in interpreting postmodernism," etc. Most of the terms in connection with the methodology of analysis are used correctly, appropriately. The conclusions on the text correspond to the main block, the author notes that "in the second half of the XX century, at the intersection of two trends - the general literary tendency to cyclize and write large poetic and prose forms and the general cultural, widespread in popular culture, cinema, comics and creolized texts - there is a tendency to form a supertext. Conventionally, a supertext should be defined as a complex textual structure that includes a large number of interrelated elements, each of which at the same time represents a complete text and can be perceived separately ...". In my opinion, it is promising to develop a number of theses that are included in the text in new related thematic works: for example, "the main task of myth, regardless of the interpretation of the term and its type, is to offer an understandable, stable complete picture of the world in which roles and functions are clearly defined and which explains the surrounding phenomena, events , etc . As A. L. Barkova notes, the myth is based on the perception of reality based on emotions, i.e. it is a deeply subjective, but at the same time a social phenomenon...", or "the main fantastic assumption in novels and the basis of the construction of their artistic world is the idea that the word / book / the author himself can influence the physical world. The element of meaning changes the parameters of reality in both cases...". The work is holistic, interesting, the likely effect of dialogue with opponents has been created, no serious violations have been identified. I recommend the article
"Fictional worlds of fantasy and "magical" prose as a space for generating supertext" for publication in the magazine "Litera" of the ID "Nota Bene".
