Антиномия вымысла и достоверности в романе Джона Ирвинга «Мир глазами Гарпа»

Abstract

The article examines the antinomy between fictionality and authenticity in The World According to Garp by John Irving. The first part of this article deals with the narrator of the framing text, who constantly shifts from pure imagination to meticulous fixation on pseudo-documental facts about the fictionalized character Garp. The mode of narration in terms of adhering to factuality and imagination alters in different parts of the novel. The ambiguity of the narrator’s position and its inclusion in the considered novel’s antinomy result in the possibility of attributing the novel’s framing text to either Garp himself or his official biographer, Donald Whitcomb. Further, the article examines interpolated texts attributed to the secondary narrator (Garp), in which he tries to find a balance between pure fantasy and reliance on memory in his work. Garp’s fiction here divides into three major groups: memory and personal experience based, imaginative, and a combination of the two, of which the latter proved to be the most fruitful. The article describes how the relationship of the primary and secondary narrators with conventional “reality” is complicated by comparing the frame text and texts attributed to the character, as well as the latter with the works of the biographical author (i. e. Irving). The final part of the article exposes the lyric poetry as a synthesis of (auto)biographical (e. g. “Sexual Suspect” by Jenny Fields, character’s mother) and fictionalized (Garp’s works). The antinomy of fictionality and authenticity helps raise questions about authenticity in art, “high” and “low” literature, and the nature of art and creativity.