Russian Linguistic Bulletin (Dec 2020)
THE PATTERN OF THE POETIC PALIMPSEST “THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER” BY S. T. COLERIDGE IN WILLIAM GOLDING’S EPIC “TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH. A SEA TRILOGY”
Abstract
The subject matter of the article is a historical palimpsest, or the exemplary literary text, borrowed from the past inheritance and discreetly introduced into the genre architectonics of the epic trilogy under study. The research aims to define the dependence of the author’s hermeneutics of the classical specimen on the contemporary priorities and essential problems of creative writing. A systemic approach to the prospective purpose enables to reconstruct a consolidated model of the three novels and to identify their general pattern with the traditional formulaic matrix of the sea travelogue. Further insights into the structural organisation of the trilogy sustain, that the identified matrix provides multiple connotations of the epic narration by W. Golding with the corresponding palimpsest – namely, with “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by S. T. Coleridge. The discursive analytics of revealed connections brings the guideline of research to the intersection point of classical traditions and innovative trends in the British literature after modernism. Highlighting the retrospective plan of W. Golding’s sea epic in the context of postmodern situation entails the conclusion that the author’s strategy in relation to the palimpsest purported to assert the principle of historic continuity as a necessary condition for new developments.
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