Филологический класс (Jul 2021)
Contamination of Postmodernist and Post-Postmodernist Tendencies in the Works by J. Franzen
Abstract
The study focuses on the manifestation of the main literary trends – postmodernism and post-postmodernism – in the novels of the contemporary American writer J. Franzen, which has determined the purpose of the paper – to identify, characterize and analyze the leading features of the new literary tendencies that have obtained original interpretation in the writer’s literary creative activity. The article gives a brief overview of phi- losophical, cultural and literary criticism studies of both home and foreign scholars, which describe the vectors of development of the literary process at the present stage, pose various hypotheses with reference to the definition of these vectors, characterize them and suggest new terms for their nomination. The postmodernist and post-postmodernist tendencies are explored on the concrete material of the novels The Corrections and Purity by J. Franzen, in which they receive original interpretation and serve the purpose of impersonating the author’s ideas, unfolding the main themes, creating the characters and expressing the narration modality. The key method of research used in this paper is the method of interpretive analysis, which involves identifying content and semantic dominants and interpreting a work of fiction within a certain literary context, determining the inclusion of this work in the system of current literary movements and trends. The interpretive analysis of the works under investigation revealed various tendencies typical for the literary process of the post-postmodern era on the whole, the most important of which are the following: no clear distinction between postmodernism and post-postmo- dernism; realization and sophisticated interaction of elements of such new trends as metamodernism, cosmo- dernism, digimodernism, and automodernism. The results of the study can be used in literary analysis of modern fiction, and specifically in research works of different levels and in teaching at philological faculties of universities. The study argues that the novels by J. Franzen demonstrate the specific features of postmodernism and post-postmodernism, which reject the postmodernist principles and at the same time follow them, return to the realistic traditions and actualize new literary tendencies.
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