  vasileva-ev-vestnik-2024-2-ru.pdf |
- 16
- NARRATIVE ORGANISATION AS A RECEPTIVE STRATEGY: BASED ON THEODORE ROSZAK’S THE MEMOIRS OF ELIZABETH FRANKENSTEIN
- Vasileva E.V. Narrative organisation as a receptive strategy: based on Theodore Roszak’s The Memoirs of Elizabeth Frankenstein. Vestnik of Kostroma State University, 2024, vol. 30, No. 2, pp. 129–134 (in Russ.). https://doi.org/10.34216/1998-0817-2024-30-2-129-134
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.34216/1998-0817-2024-30-2-129-134
- УДК: 821(73).09”20”
- EDN: RLSTID
- Publish date: 2024-04-12
- Annotation: The article provides a comparative analysis of the narrative structure of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus and its rewrite – Theodore Roszak’s The Memoirs of Elizabeth Frankenstein. The ‟concentric” composition of Shelley’s novel, in which the three main narratives – Captain Walton’s, Victor Frankenstein’s and the Creature’s – were placed one inside the other, can be viewed as a variation on the popular gothic “found (discovered) manuscript” motif and were employed to enhance the emotional impact on the reader by blurring the line between fact and fiction. Roszak reproduces this structure in general, but bestows upon Walton (the primary narrator) an auctorial function, significantly expanding his “presence” in the main body of the text, represented by Elizabeth Frankenstein’s diary. While ultimately pursuing the same artistic objective as his literary predecessor, Roszak produces a more intricate system, in which each of the main characters has several functional roles; he also includes numerous inserted narratives in the text, thus complicating the structure in comparison with the elegant composition of Shelley’s novel, yet, however, meeting the same artistic goal more effectively: by intertwining fact and fiction, Roszak comes close to destroying the very fabric of the diegetic world and invading the extradiegetic reality of the reader and thus multiplies the emotional impact of the narrated events.
- Keywords: Mary Shelley, Theodore Roszak, Frankenstein, literary remake, rewrite, narrative, narrative strategy, narrator, narratator
- Funding and acknowledgments: the work was financially supported by the grant from the Government of the Russian Federation (agreement No. 23-28-00989, 14.06.2022, implementation period 2023-2024) “English Classical Literature in World Culture: Receptions, Transformations, Interpretations.”
- Literature list: Il'in I.P. Postmodernizm. Slovar' terminov [Postmodernism. A Dictionary of Terms]. Moscow, INTRADA Publ., 2001, 384 p. (In Russ.) Iukhnova I.S. «Chuzhaia» rukopis' v strukture khudozhestvennogo proizvedeniia (A.S. Pushkin, A. Pogorel'skii, A.F. Vel'tman) [‟Unknown” manuscript in structure of artistic work (A.S. Pushkin, A. Pogorelskiy, A.F. Veltman)]. Vestnik Nizhegorodskogo universiteta im. N.I. Lobachevskogo [Vestnik of Lobachevsky State University of Nizhni Novgorod], 2014, No. 2, pp. 352-356. (In Russ.) Naptsok B.R. Traditsiia literaturnoi «gotiki»: genezis, estetika, zhanrovaia tipologiia i poetika (na materiale angliiskoi literatury): avtoref. dis. … d-ra filol. nauk [The tradition of literary ‟Gothic”: genesis, aesthetics, genre typology and poetics (based on the material of English literature): DSc thesis, summary]. Krasnodar, 2016, 51 p. (In Russ.) Pavlova I.N. Romany Meri Shelli «Frankenshtein» i «Poslednii chelovek» kak filosofsko-esteticheskaia dilogiia: avtoref. dis. … kand. filol. nauk [Mary Shelley's novels “Frankensteinˮ and “The Last Manˮ as a philosophical and aesthetic dilogy: CSc thesis, summary]. Saint Petersburg, 2011, 32 p. (In Russ.) Roshak T. Vospominaniia Elizabet Frankenshtein [The Memoirs of Elizabeth Frankenstein]. Moscow, Eksmo Publ., 2022, 512 p. (In Russ.) Shelli M. Frankenshtein, ili Sovremennyi Prometei [Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus]. Moscow, Khudozhestvennaia literatura Publ., 1965, 247 p. (In Russ.) Sultanova M.A. Filosofiia kontrkul'tury Teodora Rozzaka, ocherk filosofskoi publitsistiki [The philosophy of counterculture by Theodore Roszak: an essay on philosophical journalism]. Moscow, IFRAN [RAS Institute of Philosophy] Publ., 2009, 175 p. (In Russ) Vasil'eva E.V. (Samo)poznanie v romanakh M. Shelli «Frankenshtein, ili Sovremennyi Prometei» i S.Kh. O’Kif «Chudovishche Frannkenshteina» [(Self-)Discovery in M. Shelley’s “Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheusˮ and S.H. O’Keefe’s “Frankenstein’s Monsterˮ]. Comparativistica Petropolitana. Saint Petersburg, Saint Petersburg State Univerisity Publ., 2019, vol. 2, pp. 60-69. (In Russ.) Fountain N. Underground: The London Alternative Press, 1966–74. London, New York, Routledge Publ., 1988, 231 p. Radcliffe A. On the Supernatural in Poetry. New Monthly Magazine, 1826, No. 1, pp. 145-152. The Environmental Encyclopedia, ed. by Cunningham W.P., Cooper T.H. et al., second ed. Detroit, New York, Toronto, London, Gale Publ., 1998, 1196 p. The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives. The 1960s, ed. by O’Neill W.L.: in 2 vols. New York, Charles Scribner's Sons Publ., 2003, vol. 2, 650 p. Shelley M. Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. New York, London, W.W. Norton & Company Publ., 1996, 336 p. Vargas Llosa M. Cartas a un joven novelista. México, Alfaguara Publ., 2011, 138 p.