Genre strategies of historical fiction (based on the novels of W. Scott’s “Waverley” and C. Follett’s “The Pillars of the Earth”)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31812/filstd.8429Keywords:
historical novel, genre strategies, historical fact, historical truth, artistic truth, artistic fiction, chronotope, historicism, W. Scott, K. Follett, Waverley, The Pillars of the EarthAbstract
The article examines the theoretical tools associated with historical and literary strategies within the genre of the historical novel, which require special ways and technologies for their study. The specific reflection of facts, textual modifications in which history is depicted or recorded, its figurative synthesis, aimed at acquiring certain knowledge obtained from plots built on the stated historical facts, or even myths and legends, or any other narrative field that incorporates the temporal-spatial, national-culturological, customary-legal, and ethnic-mental features of the text. The English historical novels “Waverley” (1814) by W. Scott and “The Pillars of the Earth” (1989) by K. Follett perform in the article the function of illustrating the synthesis of stages of cultural development: between generations, nations and peoples, originally interpreting eternal problems and historical facts, and therefore, interpreting reality in a new way, historically determining all these changes. And therefore, there is a need to study the patterns of change in the ideological, aesthetic, and artistic views of authors of historical novels. The thematic and problematic range of works is revealed in combination with a critical understanding of historical facts and philosophical concepts in such a conceptual range as the genre specificity of the historical novel and the place of historical fact, artistic and historical truth in it; the role of W. Scott in the discovery of a new genre formation (the historical novel “Waverley”) and the continuation of its traditions in modern English literature (the historical novel “The Pillars of the Earth” by K. Follett).
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