CC BY
1944 Norwegian Journal of development of the International Science No 34/2019
UDC 821.133.1
THE TYPOLOGY OF THE MODERN PHILOSOPHICAL AND ALLEGORICAL NOVEL
Jilevich O.
PhD in Philology, Associate Professor, Assistant Professor of Linguistics and Business Communications Department
Polessky State University, Pinsk, Belarus
Abstract
This article considers the philosophical and allegorical novel as a genre variety of the modern novel. The role of synthesis of philosophical and art-allegorical principles in this genre variety is revealed. It is argued that its basis is artistic-philosophical thought, framed with the help of allegory, and formed according to figurative and conceptual principles of reflection of the thinking of the corresponding era.
Keywords: the philosophical novel, the philosophical and allegorical novel, artistic-philosophical thought, genre modification, universalism
Today, 20th century fiction in its full is a subject to scientific research. As V.A. Gerasimchuk states, "until now, it could only be considered in the process, in the various "alive" points of interconnection and interdependence, with a project focus on self-development and self-expression" [1, p. 16]. 20th century from a modern century point of view is a qualitatively new phase in the cultural evolution, therefore an analysis and interpretation of this era's important literary processes, biographies and art works has the greatest value, especially from the actualized therein philosophical and esthetical ideas point of view.
Philosophical novel - one of the actual genres of 20th century, where the profound artistic-aesthetic and ideologically spiritual processes of era were reflected. Dominant at different times positivistic and irrational-istic currents have contributed to the process of formation and functioning of the most different philosophical novel modifications, philosophical and allegorical novel in particular.
Philosophical and allegorical novel combine in itself philosophical and artistic paradigms, their diverse kinds of consciousness are united in common qualities. In its basis lies an artistically-philosophical thought, stated with allegories and formed in according to imagery-conceptual principles of era's mentality reflection. Primary features of a modern philosophical and allegorical novel are universalism in deciding the problems of specific era, orientation on parable-allegoric form of narrative with its two-track composition and a system of characters, abstraction of its chronotopos and a presence of sub-text information.
The relevance of its functioning due to the flexibility and ability to arise in the works of the most famous writers of world literature. In particular, in the 20th century, authors such as J. Galsworthy, A. Gide, T. Mann, L. Pirandello, G. Wells, T. Fontane, A. France, J.-P. Sartre, A. Camus, A. de Saint-Exupery, M. Goretsky, Vercors, A. Murdoch, V. Golding, G. Garcia-Marquez, V. Bykov, V. Korotkevich, P. Zu-skind, J.-M. G. Leclezio, M. Tournier, S. Germain appealed to the philosophical and allegorical novels to solve their artistic and aesthetic ideas. Despite the obvious prevalence of the philosophical and allegorical novel, its typology and genre features have not yet been developed at the proper level.
The aim of this study is to identify the specific features of the modern philosophical and allegorical novel, as a genre modification of the novel.
The novels of foreign writers of the 20th century: A. France, A. Camus, A. de Saint-Exupery, W. Gold-ing, Cabot Abe, Vercors, M. Tournier, J.-M. G. Leclezio, S. Germain, P. Kignard, B. de Boucheron were the material for the research study.
A philosophical and allegorical novel is a synthetic genre modification. Its artistic, figuratively allegorical interpretation of reality is combined with scientific and logical modeling. Throughout the 20th century, these different forms of comprehension of the world in some philosophical directions have come closer.
Before this period, philosophy, without examining a person in close-ups, was mainly engaged in the search for the most general regularities of being devoid of certainty, in the study of extremely generalized systems for describing the world. Therefore, there was a significant gap between it and fiction. Philosophy influenced literature only indirectly, without directly penetrating into it.
But when some West European philosophers made the main subject of their analysis the meaning and structure of the concrete being of a person, that is, exactly what has always been a monopoly of writers, the gap narrowed significantly. This contributed to a wider and more natural interpenetration of philosophy and literature.
According to M. M. Zinde, "philosophy can enter the work in different ways" [2, p. 3]. On the one hand, it directly appears on the pages of fiction in author's retreats, in arguments or reflections of characters, but doesn't affect the narrative at the story level. Creating an intellectually rich atmosphere, increasing the specific gravity of the analytical principle, philosophy in this case still doesn't determine the behavior of the characters, remains external to the artistic content of the work, and often also significantly weakens its narrative outline.
On the other hand, the synthesis of philosophical and artistic allegorical began to be carried out at the level of the structure of the work. Being the basis of the
writer's theme and embodied from within, the philosophical thesis defines the way of thinking of the characters, their actions and behavior.
Thus, the basis of the modern philosophical and allegorical novel is artistic and philosophical thought, framed with the help of allegory, and formed according to the figuratively-conceptual principles of reflection of the thinking of its era. Allegory in this case is not a single path, but a story that organizes the entire work, the elements of which contain symbolic meanings that underlie its second meaning.
As C. Vandendorp notes, "in a philosophical and allegorical work the logical concept, concrete image and moral scheme merge together" [3, p. 18]. For defi-niteness of expression of the author's thought, the concrete appearance of phenomena in allegory, to one degree or another, is simplified or deformed.
Therefore, in such a work the life variety of the epic novel is erased and a more or less artificial art world is created. The main narrative event in a philosophical and allegorical novel becomes, as a rule, not a typical situation, but one that best illustrates the author's thoughts, judgments about human being. In other words, the story line is constructed by the author as one of the possible options for implementing a particular model. For example, the basis of the philosophical and allegorical novel "The Penguin Island" by A. France was compiled by the author of his comprehension of history and the paths that humanity should follow, as well as "the possibilities and expediency of restructuring the social order. The work is a kind of result of the writer's thoughts on the fate of human civilization "[4, p. 39]. So, the conflict in the philosophical and allegorical novel is most determined by the author's personality, the intrapersonal conflict of the writer than in the novels depicting objective reality.
The philosophical and allegorical novel potentially has a dramatic beginning. For example, as M. M. Mintz writes, W. Golding's novel "Lord of the Flies" is a tragic allegory. The writer understands man as a creature immeasurable and paradoxical both in evil and in good manifestations, as the coexistence of warring and irreconcilable principles." [5, p. 19].
This genre modification is characterized by the ob-jectification of various ideas, philosophical positions, ethical attitudes, which, according to the author's intention, "come to life" and collide in situations freed from irregular details. For example, A. de Saint-Exupery in his allegorical works developed the Nietzschean idea that civilization breeds chaos, destruction and entropy, as well as the fact that civilization impedes the free self-realization of a person [6, p. 22].
In turn, Vercors in philosophical and allegorical novels ("People or Animals", "Silva") sets up peculiar experiments based on philosophical reflections on the being of man, rethought through a conditionally allegorical perception of the world. The writer is concerned about the equality of creative potentials of man and nature, the degree of simultaneity of their evolution, arising as a result of universal relations between individuals. According to him, the philosophical basis of the allegorical novels of W. Golding is existentialistic, although existentialism is not so openly and explicitly
shown in his works as that of the French modernist writers [7, p. 182].
The hero in a philosophical and allegorical novel is more likely not self-valuable, but representative. First of all, it is aimed not at social or psychological credibility, but at expressing the author's idea. Since one of the main goals of the writer is to generalize events, to present them as a modification of universally applicable truth, he also tends to generalize in the description of characters. For example, in S. Germain's novel "The Look of Medusa", the author typifies the image of the main character, showing in the person of Lucy Dobigne the suffering of innocent children from adult violence. "Lucy turns into a creature that is neither a child nor an adult. She lives in her fictional world, where reality is intertwined with a fairy tale and myth. The uncertainty that surrounds Lucy usurps her fantasy world " [8, p. 71]. A teenager seeks to protect himself from the threat posed by her half-brother Ferdinand, in an allegorical form, personifying evil, violence, totalitarianism.
This genre form is characterized by the objectifi-cation of various ideas, philosophical positions, ethical attitudes, which, according to the author's intention, "come to life" and collide in situations freed from irregular details. For example, A. de Saint-Exupery in his allegorical works developed the Nietzschean idea that civilization breeds chaos, destruction and entropy, as well as the fact that civilization impedes the free self-realization of a person [9, p. 66]. In turn, Vercors in philosophical allegorical novels ("People or Animals", "Silva") sets up peculiar experiments based on philosophical reflections on the essence of man, rethought through a conditionally allegorical perception of the world. The writer is concerned about the equality of creative potentials of man and nature, the degree of simultaneity of their evolution, arising as a result of universal relations between individuals. According to him, the philosophical basis of the allegorical novels of W. Golding is existentialist in nature, although existentialism is not so openly and explicitly shown in his works as that of the French modernist writers [9, p. 67].
The hero in a philosophical and allegorical novel is more likely not self-valuable, but representative. First of all, it is aimed not at social or psychological credibility, but at expressing the author's idea. Since one of the main goals of the writer is to generalize events, to present them as a modification of universally applicable truth, he also tends to generalize in the description of characters. For example, in S. Germain's novel "The Look of Medusa," the author typifies the image of the main character, showing in the person of Lucy Dobigne the suffering of innocent children from adult violence. "Lucy turns into a creature that is neither a child nor an adult. She lives in her fictional world, where reality is intertwined with a fairy tale and myth. The uncertainty that surrounds Lucy usurps her fantasy world "[8, p.62]. A teenager seeks to protect himself from the threat posed by her half-brother Ferdinand, in an allegorical form, personifying evil, violence, totalitarianism.
The main feature in determining the artistic image of a philosophical and allegorical work is its moral
qualities. The author, as a rule, creates in his work such a conflict, the way out of which is presented only to a character with high moral qualities. Before making a choice in favor of goodness and humanism, the hero must suffer it, having passed through trials. For example, in the novel "The Forest King" by M. Tournier, Abel Tiffozh, while studying at the college, learns a lot of troubles, humiliations and misfortunes. Already an adult, during the fascist occupation, Abel rescues from imminent death, the Jewish boy Ephraim, who miraculously escaped death in Auschwitz: "Raising his head for the last time, Tiffog saw a golden six-pointed star in the distance, which slowly floated against the background of a blue-black sky. Tiffog's mission, and at the same time his life, ends with an era of star-bearing phoria "[10, p. 65].
Conventionality in detail, special story lines and turns, a representative hero are explained by the subordination of the sensual image of allegory. Compared to the "epic novel", the role of didactics in the philosophical and allegorical work increases.
However, the moral of the modern allegorical novel is not given separately, for example, as in a fable. It develops parallel to the narrative, dissolves in it, and therefore usually has no clearly identifiable signs in the text itself.
Rather, one of the distinguishing features of an allegorical work is its allegorical level, the symbolism is obligatory. Symbols, due to their sharpened imagery, organically link both levels of allegory: without stratification, they easily fit into a specific narrative and at the same time indicate the presence of subtext. For example, in philosophical and allegorical novel "Eleazar, or Source and Bush", M. Tournier gives religious symbols to numerous symbols. The Christian symbolism of the work and the multilayer depth of its reading should have inspired the reader to solve their own life problems in favor of the spiritual [11, p. 126]. Like M. Tournier, S. Germain also introduces an allegorical image of the Christian world into the narrative of the novel "The Weeper of Prague Streets". The crying woman of the French writer is a peculiar expression of God, the "prism of pity" or "breaking the grace of God" in people's tears. S. Germain thus seeks to push the reader - a modern person - to overcome anger and violence and to realize the primacy of spiritual values.
In the modern philosophical and allegorical novel, the model of being is created not only due to the concentration of literary material, "terse" narration, the specific image of the hero, but also with the help of a specific spatio-temporal organization. It is very difficult to determine the time and place of writing an allegorical work in the text itself. Otherwise, the work and, in particular, the truth that is affirmed in it, would lose temporary universality. The reader doesn't feel the movement of time in the story, it goes to infinity. The development of the story line is carried out outside the time frame. For example, in the novel by S. Germain "The Look of Medusa" and Vercor "Silva" the time and place of action are conditional. A philosophical and allegorical novel is characterized by extemporality.
The time in the allegorical novel is closely connected with the space of action, which is limited by the boundaries of any locality, island, apartment, plane, but at the same time it is shown open, since the action can develop anywhere, "everywhere". For example, the small town of Oran in the novel "Plague" by A. Camus, the family castle of the Richvik family in "Silva" by Vercors, the "town" in the work "The Look of Medusa" by S. Germain. However, despite the peculiar limitations of space in the philosophical and allegorical novel, it is at the same time open, since the action can occur everywhere.
Thus, the philosophical and allegorical novel combines a philosophical and artistic allegorical paradigm, their diverse types of reality are united by common qualities. This genre modification is based on artistic and philosophical thought, framed with the help of allegory, and formed according to the figuratively-conceptual principles of reflection of the thinking of the corresponding era. The main features of the modern philosophical and allegorical novel are universalism in solving problems of a certain era, orientation towards a symbolic-allegorical form of narration with its two-planed composition and system of characters, abstract chronotope and the presence of subtext information. Allegory in this genre variety is often combined with parables and forms a special attitude, a way of understanding and artistic and aesthetic reflection of the world.
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