Постмодернистские тенденции в романе Персиваля Эверетта «Персиваль Эверетт Верджила Рассела»

Abstract

The aim of the study is to identify the main style-forming techniques of postmodern aesthetics, which received an original refraction in the novel “Percival Everett by Virgil Russell” (2013) by the contemporary American writer Percival Everett. Being a prominent representative of postmodernism, P. Everett in his work actively refers to the traditional methods of this direction. The article analyses the novel, in which the postmodern game both with the reader and with the text of the novel itself becomes the dominant category. The text of the novel is rich in metatextual insertions, intertextual references to the Bible, literary works by T. Carlyle, T. S. Eliot, J. Joyce, A. Dante, as well as the works of B. Russell, G. Frege and the work of M. Escher. If the works of the contemporary American writers of the second half of the 20th century regularly become the subject of scientific research, then the works on the stated issues published at the beginning of the 21st century have not been sufficiently studied. In this regard, the scientific novelty of this study lies in the fact that for the first time in Russian literary criticism, an analysis of P. Everett’s novel “Percival Everett by Virgil Russell” is provided in the context of the designated topic. As a result, it was proved that the writer actively uses the techniques of postmodernism, which allows him to show his involvement in the traditions of world literature and enter into a kind of dialogue with his predecessors.