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10PHILOLOGICAL SCIENCES
MYTHOPOETIC FEATURES OF THE NOVELLA BELLOROFONIAD, INCLUDED IN JOHN
BARTH'S NOVEL CHIMERA
Baghirova L.
Financial Monitoring Service of the Republic of Azerbaijan Head ofprotocol and public relations unit
Ph.d student DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6806998
Abstract
Chimera is a fantastic novel written in 1972 by the American writer John Barth, consisting of three closely related novels. The novels are Dunyazadiad, Perseid and Bellerophoniad. Chimera is an example of postmodernism, which combines elements of style in its metaphorical content and beyond the traditional novel genre. He uses mythology in a noticeably self-conscious way implying a deeply serious core of meaning behind each character. In Bellorofoniad's story, the mythological plot becomes the plane of expression of Barth's literary-theoretical ideas, and the connection between the literary and mythological texts becomes an aspect that allows the writer to expand the structure and possibilities of the story. This article aims to demonstrate how the writer re-uses myth in his work by reconstructing it.
Keywords: John Barth, Bellorofoniad, Chimera, mythological symbolism, mythological images, mythopoetic, post-modernism.
In addition to being a larger section in terms of volume, the latest short story, Bellorofoniad, a part from John Barth's Chimera is complex by its structure. J. Barth successfully brought the legend of "Bellerofont" - a part of ancient Greek mythology to his work. The expression of mythical images, motives, and plots in the work is associated with the writer's maneuvers in the literary text, mythological symbolism, the functionality of mythological images, motives, illusions, and memories in the text, the interpretation of the work. Barth's interest in archaic structures, images, plots, and conscious inclination to mythological paradigms is connected with his search for a literary style, and this can be most clearly seen in the Bellorofoniad section. Here, Barth does not aim to imitate the traditional mythological biographical model. He tries to create a myth about the writer's working principle, the postmodernist author's concern about his relations with his predecessors " (p. 18, 2).
In Bellorofoniad short story, the traditional mythological plot becomes a plane for Barth to express his literary and theoretical views, the intertextual connection between the literary and the mythological text becomes a formal aspect that allows the writer to expand the structure of the narrative and the possibilities of the novel. Here the mythical hero loses his main quality -staticity, which originates from a historical source, and develops in a new context as a mythologist with a different purpose for the writer. Volkov rightly noted that this feature is characteristic of all three chapters of the novel "Chimera": As a result of the evolution of the images of Chimera, their mythological (or fairy-tale) origin fades into the background at the end of the work. Dunyazad concludes that men's feelings can be trusted. Persey reconciles with the fact that he is no longer "a middle-aged, healthy, mortal hero who has been left behind for most of his life." Finally, Bellerofont admits that "life's a failure" is of a secular origin, and that he is "absolutely ready to be content with the claim of a quiet
family in absolute uncertainty (except, of course, literary immortality)" (5, p. 143). Finally, Bellerofont admits that "life's a failure" is secular in origin, and that he is "absolutely ready to settle for a quiet family order in absolute uncertainty (except, of course, literary immortality)" (5, p. 143).
For J. Barth, ancient mythological plots are understood in the sense of cultural memory, and the writer aims to create a mythopoetic view of the modern world through the means of identification, reconstruction, formation, and language of the image, content, and structure he received from history. One of the distinctive features of Bellorofoniad is that the text is in a passive position both as a source of myth and in an active phase, acquiring a new mythological form and a "game" on the level of a postmodernist device. When the hero talks about his past life, the myths are closer to the original in the passive phase, but in the present case, in the active phase, they become the author's mythology. "When a mythical hero tells his lover, husband, or wife what happened in the first half of his life, ancient myths emerge, and the author recalls history, which is still part of the cultural heritage" (p. 25, 2).
On the other hand, the myths that the author parodies in Greek mythology play the role of a mask designed to hide the essence of the author's intention from the eyes of the "naive" reader in connection with the construction of complex metaprosical texts. Based on J. Barth's thoughts on the need for a more intellectual reader for new literature, it should be noted that it is the trained reader who can lift the mask and learn the author's ideas in a postmodernist setting. The author also mentioned the issues necessary for the readers to understand the work correctly: "Now I understand that when I ask a question, I or someone has already answered it. Five "constants" (geolocation, average water depth, the general structure of the beach, Earth's rotation speed, seabed friction), four periodic variables (relative position of the sun and moon relative to each other and the earth, relative distances to the earth, lunar orbit to the
equator) angle) and three non-periodic variables (wind force, wind direction, barometer pressure) are very important to understand when reading Bellerofonid - but it is impossible to dream of such a perception, which is very difficult to obtain (1, p. 118). As can be seen, Barth describes the work in a model of the earth and tries to express its complexity.
Numerous mythological schemes and paintings were used in "Bellorofoniad". These include a geometric "diagram" for the dramatic course of the hero's life story, a cyclical description of his heroic path, and other issues. It is known from the theoretical provisions of mythopoetics that mythological schemes are a successful means of presenting the content plan of the work in a small format, as well as maximizing the scope of the novel, eliminating the limitations of spatial and temporal parameters of the literary text. The Bellorofoniad consists of three parts: The first section covers the text in which the content takes place, and the second and third sections show the process of transforming that content into a work of art. Barth writes both the work and the literary text within the work. At the heart of the novel is the desire of the protagonist Bellerofont to search for immortality and become immortal by becoming a mythical hero. In this regard, Bellorofoniad, which describes the hero of the new constellations - "I was heartbroken when I saw Perseus, Medusa, Andromeda, Cepheus, Cassiope shining higher and higher" (1, pp. 120-121) Sounds more closely with the second part of the novel, Chimera - Perseid: The last story - Bellerophoniad is the most complicated in terms of the structure. The plot is similar to that of Perseid, although their main characters are also antagonistic: Bellerofont, now a middle-aged man is known for killing Chimera, doubts the reality of his heroism because he wants immortality and is ready to conquer again. Such doubts inspire him to find the novel Perseid, a classic myth described by Barth "(9).
On the other hand, the myths that the author parodies from Greek mythology play the role of a mask designed to hide the essence of the author's intention from the eyes of the "naive" reader in connection with the construction of complex metaprosical texts. Based on J. Barth's thoughts on the need for a more intellectual reader for new literature, it should be noted that it is the trained reader who can lift the mask and learn the author's ideas in a postmodernist setting. The author also mentioned the issues necessary for the readers to understand the work correctly: "Now I understand that when I ask a question, I or someone has already answered it. Good knowledge of Five "constants" (geolocation, average water depth, the general structure of the beach, the speed of rotation of the earth, friction on the seabed), four periodic variables (relative position of the sun and moon relative to each other and the earth, relative distances to the earth, the angle of the moon's orbit to the equator) and three non-periodic variables (wind strength, wind direction, barometer pressure) is very important to understand when reading Bellerofonid -but it is impossible to dream of such a perception, which is very difficult to obtain (1, p. 118). As can be seen, Barth describes the work in a model of the earth and tries to express its complexity.
The work has a broader framework, along with the interpretation of the ancient Greek mythological plot to the author's text. Barth also included excerpts from his previous works, lectures, and interviews in the novella. "J. Barth tries to bridge the gap between the author and the characters, replacing it with the cooperation and joint creativity" (3, p. 98). Like other sections of the novel Chimera, Bellerophoniad is a unique synthesis of fiction and literary-theoretical essays. The dual nature of the characters- both the character and the image of the author allowed the writer to theoretically interpret and test his views on art as a novel. Within the work, J. Barth himself described this aspect as follows: "A novel in the form of artificial parts. A diary, in the form of letters, a novel in the form of a notebook, in the form of notes, a novel in the form of extractive texts; a novel in the form of various documents, a novel in the form of a novel ... "(1, p. 126).
The work also expresses theoretical views about the mythical hero within the literary text. Here quotes from the views of the British poet, novelist, and literary critic Robert Graves on Greek mythology, as well as Bellerofont's views in the field of comparative mythology in the context of J. Barth's expression in images, Some of the issues known from the earlier novel The Giles Goat-Boy, aspects related to the biographies of mythological heroes, are presented. "The complex, multi-level structure of the Chimera text creates a game labyrinth in which the reader must concentrate all his attention so that he does not miss the ladder to move from one level to another, as presented by J. Barth" (5, p. 140). Therefore, the narrator of the work, as in the other two sections of the work "Chimera", is more polyphonic than them. Barth's narration enters into the story, based on 40-year-old Bellerofont telling his life stories to his wife Filonoy and his girlfriend Melanie, sometimes a sudden change of narrator makes it difficult for the reader to understand the complex text. According to the nature of the postmodernist work, the texts are presented within the text and their numerous ridges are defined by the rapid transformation between past and present time. From this point of view, the chro-notope of time and space of the work is also very rich.
Aspects of metaprose in the work manifests in matters concerning form, complicating the work with text constructions within the text, giving preference to self-expression.
There are aspects connecting the novella "Beller-ophoniad" with the previous two chapters of the novel "Chimera" and that is different from it. Both Perseus and Bellerophon strive for immortality as mythical heroes. Unlike Perseus, Bellerophon does not want to give up his heroic status, so he is cursed by Zeus. Bel-lerofont's immortality as the protagonist of the complementary part of the work is understood in the sense that he will emerge from the mythical cage and become a novel hero, that he will be immortal as a literary work.
We also see similarities between Bellerophoniad and Dunyazadname. Genie, who helped to prepare the principle of action for Shahrizah and appeared as the image expressed by the writer continues in the form of the priest Polyid in the last part of the novel. The role
of the priest, who has been Bellerofont's and his brother's teacher since adolescence, is very important and the author utters the mythological plot of the mythical hero and his activity, the way of life from his language.
J. Barth's parallels are important features of the "Chimera" novel. The first pages of the work point to the decisive role of the priest Polyid in the plot.
In "Dunyazadname", the women sent to Samarkand and forming a women's society appear here in the form of Amazons. When she met Melanippa, the woman recalled the following: "But my victim, who is as ambitious as I am, has been committed since childhood to the ideal of returning her sisters victoriously to the legendary point of departure in Samarkand. Someone will dethrone that unfortunate opponent, that depraved pig despot, and bring matriarchal order to their ancestral homeland". (1, p. 178)
Sometimes the course of events is structured in such a way that it is clear the words of the protagonists refer to both parts of the work, or that the stories there turn into opinions. After 20 years of marriage, Filonoy wants to travel with Bellerofont to the places where they lived, to visit museums, to see the historical place where the hero killed Chimera. The chapter, which has a rich chronotope of time and space, says: "Queen Fi-lonoy, who was standing by the pasture with sad eyes, finished reading Perseid and suggested: "Let's go on a journey! We'll go everywhere you did famous things, okay? Let's start with Corinth, Andromeda will not believe her eyes when she sees how old her children are! Salamis in Cyprus is an exception, as the Solimians have started to go astray again, but we can also visit the Karya Robber Museum in Pharmacus and the Amazons in Themiskyra. I feel close to the Women's Liberation Movement, but I do not have a great desire to "be free," as is well known because I am indifferent to the intellectual activities that I had the greatest passion for, before marriage "(1, p. 191).
Other features also allow the three novels to be accepted within a single novel.
"Besides the description of images, there are lexical repetitions that allow readers to connect stories within a work. These are the words "Good night", "Good afternoon" and "Good evening" the characters say to each other. The main plot of "Dunyazadname" ends with the words "Good morning", "Perseid" begins with "Good evening" and ends with the words "Good night", and "Bellerophoniad" begins with the words "Good night". The novel contains stories from the "mise en abyme" system, nevertheless, the stories themselves are intertwined: Shahriyar gives life to Amazonian women in Dunyazadname, and one of these amazons was Kalyukha in Perseid. Bellerofont finds the story of "Perseid" in "Bellerophoniad".
It is the description that brings the structure to the fore and brings it to the readers' attention" (9).
Not only the content and form but also the internal connection between the myths allow us to understand the novels as a whole work. The connection between the winged sandals that Perseus used to kill Medusa and Bellerofont's winged horse, which was born of the headless Medusa to kill Chimera, can be seen in the connection: Almost for twenty years, I had been in the
habit of unloading the tow of Athens' gift (Perseus's Columns, Panel 3) from my glorious seat on the throne every morning after breakfast. Without him, no one could have ridden the stallion that Medusa gave birth to when she was beheaded by Perseus while she was pregnant with Poseidon" (1, p. 118).
Opinions about the myth of Chimera, named after the novel, also express the connection between the sections: "So Chimera is strange he was Medusa's nephew. Pegasus' aunt's son and the winged horse were also my stepbrothers and could not be considered unrelated to me "(1, p. 172).
If before the third part of the novel "Chimera", each of two stories gives the impression of independent work, after the third part there is an obvious connection between all three novels, and the work is perceived more like a single novel. It is clear from the words of his wife, Filono, that "as I understand from the passages you read to me, such a name is used in a good way in several places in Perseid" (1, p. 114), as mentioned in the previous chapter before Bellerofont.
The novel "Bellerophoniad", as mentioned above, is based on the legend of Bellerophon. At the age of 40, the hero, who looks back at his past, tries to repeat his past successes and strives for immortality, which stands at the center of a series of mythological images. This mythological plot, which also found a place in the works of Greek and Roman poets, gained originality in the work of J. Barth. Bellerofont's main heroism is the murder of Chimera, the possession of a legendary horse named Pegasus, and the reign of Lycia. He is also the cousin of Perseid, the protagonist of the novel "Perseid", and often recalls the events surrounding him. His real name was Belarus, and he got this name after killing his brother or rather causing his death unintentionally. Polyid, Melanippa, and Filonoy are other mythical characters.
The mythological plot used in the work was presented by J. Barth in the form of an excerpt from the work "Ancient Greek mythology" by the British poet, author of historical novels, and literary critic Robert Graves.
Bellerophoniad - the snake's tail - changes the story of another legendary hero, Bellerofont, and for the convenience of readers, the author places the source text - a corresponding chapter from Robert Graves' "Ancient Greek Myths" (8, p. 4).
Before presenting the mythological plot, Barth substantiated his interest in mythological heroes and where it came from in a free text: "My interest in the myth of the traveler-hero arose in the thirties when the commentators of my novel "The Sot-Weed Factor" (1960) noted the protagonists of the novel Ebenezer Cooke, Beyefendi, and the chief poet of Maryland, fit in detail with the mythological heroism pattern shown by Lord Raglan, Joseph Campbell, and other comparative mythologists. I intended to use this template as the basis for the novel's plotline. In fact, until then, I was unaware of the existence of such a mold. When I found it out, I was so impressed by this coincidence that I researched those works, and my next novel, "Giles Goat-Boy" (1966), became a conscious and ironic orchestra. Many of my later works, such as "Menelaosname" and
"Perseid", are directly related to known examples of the myth of the traveling hero, and at the same time echo the current thematic concerns of their authors: For example, the immortality of the mortal and its ironic realization - especially the sudden transformation of the mythical hero into his own voice, life story, or into the both of them in the last pages of his life" (1, p. 162). According to Barth, myths are a poetic introduction to our spiritual experience, and therefore it is important to write real devices that point to mythical examples, as they always point to everyday realities. Then the author dwells on the Bellerofont myth: When I finished the novel "Perseid", I came across a Corinthian Bellerofont as I researched to find classic examples of the topics I was talking about. Among other things, I think it would be useful to give a summary of those who are familiar with the myths of Menelaus and Helen, Perseus, and Andromeda, even if they do not know the story of Bellerophon.
I present a summary of the "Greek Myths", an exceptional book by Robert Graves, consisting of commentaries by Antoninus Liberalis, Apollodorus, Eu-stathius, Hesiodos, Homeros, Hyginios, Ovidius, Pin-daros, Plutarchos, Iliad, and the texts of Tzetzes "(1, p. 163). In this text, J. Barth also stated that he was forty years old, which was one of the moments when the writer spoke with the protagonist. Later, Barth notes the mythical plot about Bellerofont as it is.
According to the mythical plot, Bellerofont is the son of Glakos. His real name was Belleros, and after killing his brother Deliades, he secretly left Corinth and took refuge with Proitos, king of Tire. The king's wife, Antheia, falls in love with him, and when he rejects her, Antheia tells Bellerofont that he wants to rape her, angry king avoids openly killing the guest, and sends him to King Lyobia of Lycia with a letter saying, "Kill the one who brought the letter. He wanted to seduce my wife you're your daughter." The king of Lycia, who did not consider it right to kill a visitor to the kingdom directly, asked Bellerofont to serve him by killing Chimera, a lion-headed, goat-like, and snake-tailed wolf with a fire in his mouth.
The priest, on the advice of Polyid, instructs the hero to open a Hippocrene well with a crescent-shaped ring and raise a winged horse named Pegasus, guarded by the fairies of Mount Helicon. Bellerofont finds the horse drinking water in one of the wells and carries the golden tug that Athens gave him. Some say that Athens gave Pegasus to Bellerofont towed away. Bellerofont flies with Pegasus shoots an arrow and then kills Chimera by inserting a bar of lead into the tip of a spear between his teeth. When the chimera's fiery breath melts the lead, the lead passes through its larynx and destroys its internal organs. King Jobates of Lycia then sent Bellerofont to the Solimites and their allies the Amazons, preparing for war against them. After defeating them, Karya, led by the heroic captain Kheimarrhus, defeats the pirates on the king's orders. Instead of thanking Bellerofont, the king ordered the palace guards to ambush him. The hero dismounts and prays to Poseidon to fill the plain of Xanthus behind him as he steps. Poseidon hears this, and as Bellerofont approaches the palace, he sends great waves that slowly
follow him. When no one could persuade him to retreat, the Xanthus women said they would be his wives while they run back naked to the protagonist with their skirts tied around their waists. Being so humble, the hero turns and runs away, and the waves retreat with him. At this point, King Protos shows the letter and asks the truth, and when he sees that Bellerofont is innocent, he gives his daughter Filono to him and brings the throne of Lycia. At the same time, Xanthus praises the creativity of women and orders the population to bear the surnames of their mothers, not their fathers in the future (1, p. 165).
In addition to presenting the mythological plot as it is, J. Barth also based the first section of the work on this plot, but, as noted, the author included other texts in the work. The mythological plot is told as the events of Bellerofont's past life, which he tells to his wife and lover. Here, as in other sections of "Chimera", the flow of events goes from the past to the present, but sometimes the mythological plot includes events of the modern era. Barth's concept of a mythical hero is presented in this section both theoretically and practically.
In addition to expressing his views on the work, Barth spoke about his writing skills: "Those who are unaware of what I have done will discover many motives I use here: competition between brothers, the purity of the protagonist, the solution end of all events with the murder of the organizer, Proitos's adviser (Pol-yid comes in many forms), a romantic triangle, and so on. But two main characters appealed to me the most -Pegasus and Chimera. I recreated in my mind a comic novel based on this myth. A companion to "Perseid", perhaps" (1, p. 165).
The writer mentions are about his hard work for a year and a half, how he got tired of various information, notes, simple and complex projects, and even fell ill with what he described as "writer exhaustion" (1, p. 165), but eventually regained his creativity.
It is a non-literary aesthetic principle that when I understood its nature, the difficulty I experienced in Bellerofont's story became clear, and I got rid of both the swamp and the myth" (1, p. 165). The work itself is aimed at getting rid of the myth in the mythical plot, removing the mythical mold of the hero from the historical legend, and creating a modern model of the ideal of immortality.
The connection of the work with "Perseid" is clear from the first pages: "... On the eve of the birthday of King Bellerofont of Lycia, he found a Greek novel "Perseid" floating in a swamp near the palace, the story of the protagonist; when he came to the last sentence he was forty years old and very tired" (112). As it is known, the protagonist finds a Greek short story in his middle age, in the exciting time of his 40s, and his life goes in search of immortality. The chronotope of time is also interestingly expressed here.
From the beginning of the novel, J. Barth presents a summary of the work, which symbolizes the mortality and immortality of the mythical hero, the hesitations between real and eternal life: "How he made the winged Pegasus fly over and over again; how he killed the three-parted Chimera twice; fell in love twice and lost twice; that he twice aspired to immortality, grew up,
and died - in short, how he followed the curve of heroism and became a hero. In the end, he got rid of the deadly conversations and returned to the written words: the letters that make up the word Bellerofont fly between the two worlds, betraying the person they represent forever with different combinations" (1, p. 112113). At the same time, the writer puts it succinctly: "What do you think if drama and development on the one hand, and idyll and immortality on the other, are not irreconcilable concepts?" he invites his readers to discuss. Bellerofont appears as a mythical hero, primarily on suspicion of being a demigod or mortal. "We were twins, twin boys, looked the same, but were different inside. From the moment he began to walk, Bel-lerus was a passionate, enthusiastic child, Aphrodite's fiery lover. Deliades careful, insightful, measured in every matter, a fan of Athens. Polyid is also our teacher "(1, p. 123), the hero puts an end to doubts in a document found by Delidas: "Deliades kissed me and suddenly showed to the courtiers the paper in hand: The son of Glaukos and Eurymede was written under his name, and mine was the son of Eurymede and Poseidon." (1, p. 130).
There is no doubt that Bellerofont will be immortal when it is known in Greek mythology that he was the son of Poseidon, the god of the sea, and the brother of Zeus. However, Barth's aim is not to present and describe the ancient mythological plot, but to direct the functionality of the myth to the modern meaning of immortality. In fact, by dispelling Bellerofont's priesthood towards the end of the novel, he destroys the classical myth and creates a new one.
From an early age, Bellerofont learned from the priest Polyid, and the priest taught him the "mythical form of heroism": "He taught Bellerus the mythical form of heroism from his childhood; a quarter of this pattern suggests that the mature hero suddenly fell out of the sight of men and gods, left his city, whether he wanted to or not, and became a deity at the top of a mountain, where there is a symbolic equivalent of his divine birth" (1, p. 115). The main difference between Bellerofont's mythical hero character and the mythical images of the other two sections is that he follows other examples of heroism, imitating a mythical hero. With a unique mythopoetic chronotope, Barth constructs a two-phase scheme of the hero's life. While Bellerofont, an honest and courageous hero, fought against the strongest enemies in the first half of his life, towards the end of his life he gained immortality in art, free from the veil of imitation of the mythical hero.
If "Perseid" has a spiral structure, it has a circular shape. The author himself writes in the novel about the structure and essence of the work: " At my forties, this novel starting immediately from the middle, besides reflecting the drama (my eternal search for immortality) depicted the old adventures, too - it was opened by a simple but useful technique obtained by the ironical conclusion of the second half of my life in its first half; Like Persey, but structurally, five numbers (ie, two and three) were used instead of seven, and a circle was used instead of the algorithmic spiral as a geometric motif. Moreover, it reflected not only the opening sentences
of Perseid but also its dramatic structure" (1, p. 116117).
Comparing "Bellerophoniad" with "Perseid", Barth pays attention to its distinctive features, especially the richness of the explorer view, and considers this to be the most striking feature of the novel (1, p. 117).
J. Barth presents a diagram of the life of a real hero with a world axis in the center, and considers his work as a small diagram of the Earth and shows the cardinal directions necessary to understand it. In the synthesis of past and present, J. Barth tries to connect the life story of the mythical hero with the shape of the world: "As far as I know, my only country is Corinth, so I had to travel around the world to reach it by my current route. But Polyid predicted years ago that the Earth would be circular only centuries later, and that this would be proved much later" (1, p. 138). This aspect, which is characteristic of the story, is characteristic of the novel as a whole. In "Chimera", the writer informs his heroes of the information they need from the future, thus simulating a life story in which they return from the past in the form of a myth" (5, p. 141).
Expressing the average age hesitations of the mythical hero using interesting word games, J. Barth first highlights the links between the hero's inner world and his past, and the thoughts of the semi-god Bellerofont on the way to immortality: "I can. Of course, I can. I have no doubt I can. I can't; I'm starting to think I can't; I may begin to wonder why I cannot see; I may begin to believe that I cannot; I can't start thinking, I can't start being interested in, I can't start. Of course, I can. Can I do that, I can't do it" (1, p. 121). The work, which is always based on an unexpected event and a different way of thinking, has a unique approach to the middle age crisis, and there is another side to this aspect, which continues in the Perseid section: "I can't say that what I am experiencing a personality crisis. To experience a personality crisis, you must first have a sense of identity. The tradition of mad genius in literature. The twin tradition in the literature. The tradition of the story within the story, the tradition of the crazy editor of the text, the tradition of the unreliable narrator" (1, pp. 122-123).
Bellerofont, who bears this name because he was considered as the killer of his brother, was not a real killer, he was simply forced to play the role of this murderer in the action plan of the mythical hero mold of the priest Polyid. The hero first blames the priest for the events in which the hippomanes, fed to the horses, turn them into savages and kill their father and brother, and Bellerofont's daughter Sibyl, the priest's daughter, inadvertently obstructs them.
Here the priest Poliid emphasizes his ironic attitude to myths, the writer's thinking, and style: "All this is in accordance with the pre-determined Victory, which Zeus had no power to change, that it would be in vain for a simple priest to try to stop him" (1, p. 136). According to the requirements of this mold, Belarus had to leave the country under a new name, perform a series of heroic deeds like Bellerofont, and then return and take possession of his country and the throne. The
word Bellerofont also means "killer Belarus" (1, p. 136).
Barth sometimes interfered with the work with the voices of various characters and expressed his attitude to the mold of the mythical hero: "Although there was some comfort in the mold, I was not sure that the real task of a mythical hero could begin with the blood of his father" (1, p. 137).
The mythical lifestyle of the hero symbolizes the beginning of J. Barth's professional life. If Bellerofont follows in the footsteps of that pattern and finds its truth, the writer will also develop his lectures and ideas on mythology. Bellerofont, who said, "I have ruined my head by putting my name in mythological history" (1, p. 138), says the things that are important for a professional life: "In short, before I began my professional life, I realized that I lacked at least three things: clearer advice on forgiveness; more accurate heroic works guide with specific goals, competitors and jobs; a magic weapon, tool or mystery to do this.
For all three, he had to turn to the priest or the gods, so as not to waste more time, I did both, and on the way back to Polyid I took a break from praying in all the Athenian temples I found on the way" (1, p. 138).
J. Barth puts forward the criteria for defining a hero as a mythical hero, so all the events in the work are presented as occurred, occurring and will be taking place within the framework of this pattern: "A constellation - Orion, Heracles, Castor, and Pollux also testify, or it was the natural destiny of a mythical hero to do so ... Just as I did not choose Poseidon to be my father, I did not "choose" to kill Glaukos and my brother, nor to choke the monsters.
This is the winner ..." (1, p. 140).
According to Barth, the mythical hero lives not by logic, but only by mold. The writer expresses this in the words of Athena to her husband: "It is your job to make logic, her job is to be a mythical hero, the point" (1, p. 140-141). Saying that the mythical hero lives within a certain pattern, the writer also shows the fate of getting out of the cage of this mold.
Here, Barth tries to express the features of the emergence of a new morphology, gradually breaking the framework of the classical myth: "When I first thought about the issue, I began to say that the heroes seem to have no choice in the common destiny because it is determined by Galib. However, any hero could turn his back on himself at any time, so to speak, and, instead of marching to victory like Achilles, he could retreat to his tent.
If he persisted in such a stagnation, he could not be a hero with certain qualities, just as a prince who refuses to ascend the throne is not a king" (1, p. 140).
Aristotle's ideas are cited to prove that Bellerofont was not a murderer.
When Athena calls him a murderer, the protagonist makes the opposite argument. Here J. Barth includes in the work a scheme of Aristotle's classification of behavior. Aristotle classifies behaviors into three categories: 1) willingly, 2) unintentionally (that is, done unknowingly, later confirmed or regretted), and 3) unknowingly.
Aristotle classifies intentional behaviors as preplanned and sudden, spontaneous behaviors. Behaviors performed without realizing it are divided into the unconscious and forced. At the same time, unconscious behaviors are subdivided into those that are "committed without the consciousness of the culprit, action, object, tool, influence, and style," and "generally performed without the awareness of right and wrong." Based on this scheme, Bellerofont assesses the fact of his murder and makes a definite decision: "... my inability to go to the aid of my relatives and prevent Sibyl from getting rid of them is at first" sinful, action, object, tool, influence and style without consciousness "and" unaware "coercion" seems to share the characteristics of both behaviors. On the one hand, I was unaware of the savage effect of hippomanes on the wrists and that Sibyl could soothe them. On the other hand, I was "forced" to do so because I thought we had no choice but to sacrifice our lives for Sibyl or me. On the contrary, it can be said that the irresistible passion I felt for making love with Sibyl at that moment, my behavior, voluntarily entered the class of "sudden, spontaneous behavior." However, my own choice is to see it as a special type of behavior in the second category - "involuntary (ie, unintentional, later confirmed or regretted)" behavior, because death and the role I play in it stings me and is partly out of my hands. It corresponds to the stereotype: From this point of view, I affirm it, and therefore I am guilty, even if I am not legally guilty in Aristotle's classification, I am morally guilty" (1, p. 143).
Barth tries to voice the difference between Bel-lerofont's classical myths in various forms, explicitly or implicitly, from the language of his individual images, and in this way, at the same time, evaluates the model of the mythological hero. "A lot of the heroes I've heard of," Proitos saying, "had a certain monster in their minds when they set out, or something they had to earn.
Does the fact that you don't have something like that really mean that you don't have the problem you're hoping for?"
(144) suggests to the reader that the search for the immortality of the mythical protagonist will not end in the traditional way: "When all the mythographic findings were examined, it turned out that although many hemispheres fit this definition, a smaller, perhaps more bizarre group, does not" (1, p. 144). Bellerofont's heroic model is also related to the fact that he is mortal or immortal, a demigod.
Therefore, J. Barth presented a schematic classification of the demigods in the work. This is one of the indicators of a classic myth: "Only God is born from God and God." "From mortal and mortal borns mortal; from god and mortal is born demi-god.
For the demigods with the gods, the demigods with the demigods, and the mortals with the demigods, the result can probably be best illustrated, as gg- means god, mm- means mortal, gm or gm- means demigod" (1, p. 148-149). If we see here that technically J. Barth brought different aspects to the work of art, used schemes and symbols, the writer's irony is even stronger in terms of attitude. Barth's irony is also seen in the myths about the desire to have relations with gods and demigods to give birth to children.
The protagonist of Perseid lives in danger of being stoned, constantly fighting against him, and trying to achieve immortality. In Bellerofont's case, the writer also considers the stoning to be a symbol of eternity: "Apart from being a zodiac star, I think the closest thing to immortality to a mortal king is to be stoned to death in a real pose towards the end of a glorious king-dom."(1, p. 154).
Although time has not changed in terms of form in the course of events, there has been a change in the context, and Bellerofont answers questions to students at the Department of Classical Mythology at the University of Lycia.
Here Barth already speaks more in the example of Bellerofont. The writer's inner voice transforms the classical myth into a modern university audience: "Finally, our presence here at the Department of Classical Mythology at the University of Lycia encourages us to write an assignment about your life so far, even if we are not a civilized society, at least we are not far from reading and writing. Isn't there a mismatch here too?" (1, p. 161) Apparently, Barth wrote the words and expressions in capital letters with an ironic emphasis, using mythical images to direct his irony, especially towards modern society.
The chronotope of time and space can also be seen in other parts of the work.
As for Bellerofont's Lycian kingdom, Finoley, the king's daughter, whom he later married, is introduced as a 16-year-old student of mythology at the university: "He introduced me to his youngest daughter, Finoley, who studied mythology at the university at the age of sixteen (but there was no department at the time. He was embarrassed and asked me to sign the syllabus ... He admitted that he had a great passion for mythology, and if the professor accepted, he asked me if I would attend the class - I didn't have to remember anything, just talk to the children. I was pressured to tell stories about Perseus, the most beloved contemporary in this field" (1, p. 170). Finoley also compares his dissertation on the mythical hero with Bellerofont. Finoley notes that the mythical heroes will lose their power from time to time, proving that they received it from the grace of the gods, not from tools that could be stolen or ineffective. Although this is a controversial issue, he says he will conduct research in this area (1, p. 188).
One of the leading mythical heroes in the work is Polyid. The fact that he is a priest, that he is the father of the protagonist, that he often changes his form and appears in different images are the most important factors that mimic the role of a writer. Describing even the emergence of Chimera because of him, the writer here symbolizes an important issue through mythical heroes.
The introduction of the three-headed Chimera to the work symbolizes the fact that the novel "Chimera" consists of three parts. "Her name [chimeras] is postmodernism. Chimeric postmodernism is conditioned by the fact that in it, as in a dream, there is an inextricable: unconscious aspiration ... to wholeness ... the pursuit of life and a clear consciousness of the original fragmentation, the fragmentation of the XX century" (7, p. 5).
In contrast to the classical myth, the priest's emphasis on the emergence of Chimera is because his subtitle role in the work is associated with the imitation of the writer. The priest, living in a cave in an extinct volcano on Mount Chimera on the Lycian-Karya border, turns into a wolf with a lion's head, a goat's body, a snake's tail, and a fire in his mouth, and then struggles to separate himself from the wolf.
The priest, who said, "This is the first time in the history of a magical transformation that he has ever encountered such a thing" (1, p. 169), has two main concerns after taking office as Minister of Defense in the Lycian kingdom: "... on the other hand both concealing responsibility for Chimera's emergence and he also had to regularly go into hiding and feed the animal in the crater with soothing spells until he found a better way to calm him down" (1, p. 169). Here J. Barth's ironic approach to classical myth emerges, and the priest who gave rise to it parallels J. Barth, the creator of the novel Chimera.
It is no coincidence that the mythical hero was also designed by the priest Polyid and presented Bellerofont to the Lycian king as a "mythical hero of the future" (1, p. 169-170). If Bellerophon is the training of a priest in the work, Bellorofoniad is the creative product of J. Barth. In another context, the writer brings a modern character to the myth of Chimera.
"Then do not kill him," said Bellerofonta Finoley, who had been ordered by the Lycian king to kill Chimera, in a sweet voice. "Bring it to live to the zoology department of the university ... We can build a cage in Chimera, the breath of which can be used to heat the air of the whole zoo, even the poor of the city" (1, p. 182).
When Bellerofont was sent to kill Chimera, his sense of reluctance to kill the horrible myth is expressed in a completely different way: "... I was not willing at all, again, not for my own safety, but my recent growing awareness has taught me that wolves can be of great ecological importance, that they can make a vital connection in the food chain......again, the same way he
demanded that he would be killed, not captured" (1, p. 182).
These also indicate Bellerofont's desire to get rid of the mythical form of heroism - the cage. Priest Pol-yid - J. Barth presents the murder of Chimera as the most important indicator in Bellerofont's Template. Since Chimera died in the fog, there must be someone to witness that the hero killed her. Although the death of that witness was a foregone conclusion, the priest decided to testify.
Bellerofont expresses his suspicion that he is a mythical hero by various factors in his life: I do not protect - all this shows that it is a lie that Olympus protects me (1, p. 190-191).
In the first stage, the mythical hero captures his mold: "They say, yes, everyone has a role in life and he has to do it, and he, like me, has become a captive of his role" (1, p. 148). Barth tries to free him, even from heaven. The weary hero sometimes rebels, "Die, Pol-yid, or let me die!"
(1, p. 150) opposes the mold with his words. He realizes that he is not a mythical hero, but rather regrets that he will be forgotten: "I am not a mythical hero. I
will never be. I was forty years old. I will die and be forgotten like everyone else" (1, p. 209).
The hesitant protagonist is presented with a Template found on a piece of paper wrapped in a bottle and found in a swamp. The mold is described in the form of a scheme, and the scheme is described in the form of a circle, and the circle is divided into four sections.
Each section has its own parts. In the upper part of the circle, from the central point of the "Navel of the World", life begins with "Extraordinary pregnancy and virgin birth" in the first hemisphere and ends with "Extraordinary death at the top of the mountain" in the second hemisphere. At the center of the circle, which is divided into four parts, is written the "eve of adventure," and the four sections are divided into "separation," "beginning," "return," and "kingdom and death" (1, p. 211). These sections describe the course of all the events encountered by the protagonist in his life and are presented to the readers towards the end of the work.
When Bellerofont finds the Winner, he receives his final instructions from the priest: "This is not Perseid." It is better to look for all the women you are in love with, Aphrodite only comes to such things. One day you will meet a big H. on the road, I'm jealous of you. When you win, stay true to it. See you in paradise" (1, p. 210-211). The author compares Perseus and Bellerofont again, urging Perseus not to imitate Perseus, but to seek the help of women in his life to re-fly Pegasus, the horse he possessed to achieve immortality. Although Bellerofont can get hippomanes from Sibyl, the first woman in her life, to fly Pegasus, the resurrection causes her to crash and wake up on the edge of a swamp. The issues raised in the subsequent events also connect the novel with "Dunyazadname". Bellerofont falls into an area of women under the rule of Athena, who refused to make love to her and took all the mythical heroic tasks in her life as a punishment: he trained the palace guards, reversed the sexes in all the rules of the law books, and in all the urban traditions which prepared the relations between the sexes, and established a complete matriarchal order in Tiryns" (1, p. 223).
We came across such a matriarchal order in the "Dunyazadname" in the plain established in Samarkand.
Returning to this issue, Barth wanted to draw attention to women's issues in modern society. Here, with the help of his beloved amazon Melanippa, Bellerofont, who encounters him here, encounters him in the course of his life, and later experiences feelings of remorse, saves himself and his horse, and flies into the sky together. It is at this stage that it becomes clear to the reader who wrote the events narrated by Bellerofont throughout the work. The polyphonic novella with the explorer and the writer's imitator begins to clarify the issues towards the end, as in other sections. It turns out that Melanippa wrote about the life of the hero, the events he told to his wife and lover. This brings Melanippen to the position of a writer-imitator and connects her with the Shahrizad line in "Dunyazadname": "They are happy in heaven; they write this work. There, after all, Bellerofont and she lived happily ever after. Melanippe poured the lead of Pegasus' horseshoes into his lover's pen. These are his words; This is the life of
Bellerofont" (1, p. 233). As you can see, at the end of the first part of the novel, Bellerofont's life story ends with her story and her lover's writing, and Bellerus finds her immortality in "Bellerophoniad": "... Bel-lerofont's voice, immortal Bellerofont, is the essence of the work. The love of Bellerofont and Melanippen will spread to universal time and space; to the music of the tongue, to the silent, visible signs ..." (1, p. 235).
As noted, since the structure of the text is not based solely on the plot of Greek mythology, it presents intertwined texts that are also directly related to the tales of "A Thousand and One Nights." If at first, it seems that the work was written by Melanippa, then it turns out that Bellerofont wrote the events towards the end: the finale of "Bellerophoniad" is quite complicated. At the end of the novel, it becomes clear to Bellerofonta that the story was written by Melanippa, not Melanippa. However, at the beginning of the work, he said: "I dictate my life story to Melanippa with my own voice..." and then "For God's sake, Melanippa, write!" But Melanippa denies her authorship: "I haven't written anything about it, it's all your business until the last word." Thus, J. Barth gives a double impression of the author, because it is already known that Bellerofon's story was written by Polyid" (9).
The second part of the novella "Bellerophoniad" further clarifies the issue of Bellerofont's immortality. In this section, Bellerofont appears as an imitator of the author who wrote his life stories. The writer speaks more in the person of Bellerofont, and also removes her lover Melanippa, the only character left beside Bel-lerofont's classic myth: "To be honest, I think we are drowning rather than immortalizing: You write all day, tomorrow, noon, evening, to be a myth and immortality in your life story should be the best thing in the world -I really respect that - but I love action, okay?" (1, p. 236) In this section, the writer also shows his attitude to the meetings about myth with the voice of the protagonist. According to the author, myth is not a lie and fabrication, but reality and reality:
So maybe I shouldn't be a hero, I shouldn't even exist, I shouldn't even keep going. In fact, I could not speak" (1, p. 238).
The third and final part of the novella "Belleropho-niad" ends with a complete definition of the mythical nature of the hero and the transcendence of the last steps of the mythical winner. Here, the writer highlights Galib's "Mystery and Tragedy".
The events here take place in heaven, ending with the fall of Bellerofont and Paul, the priest who is completely known to be his father in this section. "Mystery and tragedy say The secret of the hero's journey to the other world, enlightenment, transcendence, his inclination; the return to everyday reality, the inability to translate sacred sentences and cities, the loss of sight of people and gods, the tragedy of exile" (1, p. 240). By this time, the hero, who imitates the mythical hero, and thus sometimes causes fun and irony, transcends the boundaries of mystery and tragedy and becomes a reality. With the wrath and punishment of Zeus, Bellerofont and his father descend to the priesthood. The priest, who said, "It takes a long time to get out of
heaven" (1, p. 240), clarifies many issues in the meantime. Bellerofont rips off his fake name and the identity he imitates: "There would be another constellation in the sky with the same name - but Perseid is the exact opposite. it is very difficult to think like their letters were written on a page" (1, p. 246).
"Because you are my father - a filthy old eccentric, a vile goat, an old rooster - I'm sure of it: who could imitate this life so well for so long, except the son of Polyid?" (1, p. 246). Here J. Barth expressed an ironic attitude to ancient Greek myths. "Perseus confused his identity with the mythical image of Perseus, and Bellerofont, in the name of Bellerofont" (1, p. 193), wanted to say that all the heroes were, in fact, not Barth's heroes, but classical myths. In the stories included in Chimera, the connection between fictional stories and the main novel is different. In addition, all the stories have narrative anachronism; inconsistencies between the order of history and the order of narration (6, p. 232). At the end of the third part of the novella "Belleropho-niad", the question of the detective is also clarified to some extent. At the beginning of the book, readers of Chimera may have some doubts about who the real detective is. But at the end of the work, the writer shows who the real creator of the whole text is. The last word for "Bellerophoniad" is not "Bellerophoniad". It's just ..." is a reference to the beginning and the name of the whole novel. He closes the circle, and as a result "Chimera" becomes a spiral, the moment when Barth tore off his pen from the paper but began again on the first page as a story of his work "(5, p. 142).
As can be seen, J. Barth used the rich plots and images of Greek mythology in his short story Beller-ophoniad. However, the author's aim is not to describe traditional mythical images, but to discuss the reasons for appealing to myths in modern literature in a broad sense, the possibilities of their use, their contribution to the formation of a new literary style, modern aspects of art with myths. In this work, J. Barth gave more space to his literary and theoretical ideas, included them not only through images, but also directly as his speech, enriched the literary text with different texts. Among the intertextual texts, Barth sought human meanings: "The concept of objective truth itself is problematic, especially when it is a major historical subject, but also the art of narration, especially the mythopoeic or at least its mythographic type of interview or has a structure, rhythm, value, and requirements, unlike historical writ-
ings. As a result, in the contradiction between the different interpretations of myths, one must look for human meanings" (1, p. 159). In "Chimera", Barth uses a variety of tools to connect the subdivisions - author status, fable, historical description, character functions, and more.
The emphasis on the structural features of the work is aimed at blurring the line between the historical-mythological plot and the author's imagination. The playfulness of the work is one of the peculiarities of Barth's novel.
The most important feature of all three parts of "Chimera" is theatricality" (5, 144). In different sections of the novel, some characters manipulate others as if they were a playwright or a theater director (4, p. 117).
"Chimera" is the most important example of Barth's new novel experiment. Here the writer experimented with texts, sources, time and space, and extended the boundaries of metaphor to the end with the help of mythological plots. The postmodernist nature of the novel further expanded its possibilities. At first glance, all three chapters of the novel are presented on behalf of the autobiography. However, the main characters of the sections become imitators of the author, and the prose is polyphony.
References
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3. Tobin P. John Barthh and the Anxiety of Continuance. Philadelphia, 1992.
4. Waugh P. Metafiction. The Theory and Practice of Self - Conscious Fiction. London, Methuen, 1984.
5. Васильевич В.И. Интертекстуальность и народия в творчестве Джона Барта. Диссертация на соискание ученой степени кандидата филологических наук. Ростов-на-Дону, 2006.
6. Женетт, Ж. Фигуры: в 2 т. Москва, Изд.-во им. Сабашниковых, 1998.
7. Ильин И.П. Постмодернизм от истоков до конца столетия. - М.:Интрада, 1998.
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9. https ://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/himera-dzhona-Bartha-kak-metaroman
