Metatheatre in contemporary English novel (based on the novels 'Morality Play' by B. Unsworth and 'Arts and Wonders' by G. Norminton)

Abstract

The relevance of this study is determined by the fact that theatricality has become an emblematic sign of the modern culture. The diverse palette of drama techniques has been repeatedly used in literature introducing them to the semantic field of fiction. In the era of postmodernism, theatricality has become a way of expression of the playful nature of postmodern texts and is often one of the typical features of the literature of our time. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate it based on the analysis of two novels by British writers of the late 20th and early 21st century – “Morality Play” by B. Unsworth (1995) and “Arts and Wonders” by G. Norminton (2004), which take place, respectively, in the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. Both novels have not yet been so far properly studied in Russian literary criticism. In these works, the concept of theater permeates all levels of the novels' structure – thematic, lexical, psychological and philosophical, thereby resulting in the ultimate theatricalization of the text. Theatricality becomes their fundamental principle, which reflects itself in visualization, dialogization, attempts to orchestrate individual lives and life at large, etc. In the novels by B. Unsworth and G. Norminton, it contributes to the creation of a metatheatrical image of the world, when the border between theater and reality is completely blurred – life and theatre are interchanging, and eventually theatricality increasingly develops into a postmodern carnival, which is characterized by multiplicity, lack of clear ideological orientation, mixture of high and low, and overlapping game nature.

Keywords

• postmodernism
• theatricality
• carnival
• simulacrum
• metatheatricality