Siberian Federal University

Issue

Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences. 2018 11 (7)

Authors

Kotelevskaya, Vera V.

Contact information

Kotelevskaya, Vera V.: Southern Federal University 105/42 Bolshaia Sadovaia Str., Rostov-on-Don, 344006, Russia;

Keywords

modernist literature; postmodern; post-structuralism; death of subject; death of author; German literature; metafiction; Thomas Bernhard

Abstract

The article examines a so-called “death of a subject” based on the German metafiction of 1960–1990. This subgenre is interpreted as the most adequate literary form of problematization of the modern subject. The protagonist of metafiction is most often an artist or an intellectual. The narrative is superseded by self-reflection of the writing subject. Self-consciousness of the main character is the centre of the author’s attention, therefore a meta-novel often takes the form of a self-reflective narrative – a diary, notes, a stream of consciousness. The article analyses the creative work of Thomas Bernhard and especially has an increased focus on his novel “Correction” (1975). Such properties of a meta-novel as the ambivalence of “self” and the Other, the problematization of writing, the interpretation of art as life and life as art are analysed based on the example of the novel “Correction”. It is proved that German metafiction keeps its connection with modernism and does not lose the semantic “depth”, catharsis, as well as the romantic idea of an artist as a “genius”

Pages

1083-1092

Paper at repository of SibFU

https://elib.sfu-kras.ru/handle/2311/71762

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