Deconstruction of metanarrative in postcolonial text: interpretation of Christian code in Keri Hulme’s novel “The Bone People”

Abstract

This article examines the projection of the European metanarrative in postcolonial text on the example of deconstruction of the Christian metanarrative in Keri Hulme’s novel “The Bone People” (1985). The concept of “metanarrative” is described through the prism of literary studies as a criterion for analyzing the evolution of literary process in the era of postmodernism. In postcolonial research, metanarrative has vast theoretical potential and manifests as a dominant code dictated by the European culture as a dominant one, culture of colonized nations, which makes the authors of postcolonial period refer to the method of deconstruction of metanarratives of the former colonialists. Practical analysis is conducted on the postcolonial novel that interpreted such components and the storyline, imagery of the heroes, and paratextual level. The scientific novelty of this study consists in the fact that the literary process in New Zeland as a whole, and works of the representatives of Maori Renaissance in particular, are insufficiently studied by the contemporary scholars. The analysis of deconstruction of the Christian metanarrative in postcolonial text allows making the following conclusions: uniqueness of deconstruction of metanarrative in a postcolonial text is based on application of the counter-discursive strategies, which include reference to the elements of metanarrative, presentation as a part of colonial discursive field, and authorial transformation for inscribing them into postcolonial space.