ФУНКЦІЇ ГРОТЕСКУ В РОМАНІ ДЖ. СВІФТА «МАНДРИ ГУЛЛІВЕРА» (З ОПЕРТЯМ НА ТЕКСТ ТРЕТЬОЇ ЧАСТИНИ)

Abstract

The article deals with researching the functions and specifi c features of the grotesque shapes in the novel«Gulliver’s Travels» by Jonathan Swift, on the basis of the third part of the novel, «A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glubbdubdrib and Japa». The purpose of the article is to analyze the world of the grotesque, described in the text, and reveal the role of the grotesque as a key issue in spotting the author’s attitudes and his philosophical views. The scientists, who studied and developed the theory of grotesque (M. Bakhtin, Iu. Mann, V. Keiser, A. Shaposhnikova, T. Dormidontova) assume that these are the J. Swift’s works that contain the brightest examples of the grotesque in the European literature, but no deep analyses of the grotesque has been reported to be fi xed so far. The third part of the novel differs signifi cantly from the previous ones both by intonation and the shift in the functions of the main hero. Interpreting the sizes of the human beings grows into the play with different shapes of existence. Many critics considered the third part to be the weakest and the most conservative one because of ridiculing the science and the scientists, but at the same time the writer was an intellectual with his keen interest in the works of Renй Descartes, Blaise Pascal, and Francis Bacon. Such grotesque situation, where the author found himself and his novel, requires a meticulous research of the semantic fi eld of the third part of the novel. The results of the analysis with the examples of the grotesque as a subject, confi rms that the main function of the J. Swift’s grotesqueis to serve as a satiric means for depicting the governing regime and speculative scientifi c theories of those times. The grotesque shapes are revealed within the literary artistic chronotope, the image system, semantic elements of the text etc. The main objective the author conveys in the examples of grotesque from the third part is to make up the world, which will terrify readers, making them think about spiritual and intellectual surface of the humanity. Key words: literature of Enlightenment, the grotesque, the grotesque shapes, literary artistic chronotope, artistic model of the world, literary allusions, satire.