Functional Features of Multiple Spaces in Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles

Abstract

The category of fictional space is an important part of a literary text that has a significant impact on it. Adherents of literary structuralism such as Yuri Lotman, Tsvetan Todorov, Vladimir Toporov, Mikhail Bakhtin, Umberto Eko, Volodymyr Propp, and others have pointed out that the type of space or chronotop has a strong effect on the genre, plot, and characters of a text. In other words, space is an important functional component, and not just a decorative element in the fictional world. However, a literary text often cannot exist within the limits of a flat structure. That is why a text multiplies itself by building multiple worlds within one universe. Such a complicated universe has a number of terms. There are multiverses, possible worlds, small worlds, multiple worlds, mirror worlds, alternative worlds, and others. Possible worlds form the most common concept, which was introduced by modal logics and borrowed by literary critics. The phenomenon of possible worlds implies the existence of two or more worlds that coexist simultaneously in one universe. Opposition is the main condition in which possible worlds can exist as a phenomenon. This resistance is implemented by the division of the worlds into objective (actual) and subjective (possible) worlds. It is this condition and conflict that trigger the entire mechanism of possible worlds. Such a universe model was known in pre-Christian times, in the Middle Ages, in Modernity, and is known today. Thus, a stable tradition has naturally and gradually crystallized into a world cultural code. Ray Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles (1950) is one of the classic and vivid examples of fictional texts whose events develop in a plural fictional space. As the majority of sci-fi literature, the Martian Chronicles are built on the opposition of 2 worlds – Earth and Mars. Earthlings have colonized Mars and gradually destroyed its cultural code. This destruction brings another essential thing, namely a hierarchical change. In other words, Earth is a traditionally objective world but throughout the plot’s development the cycle of short stories loses its solidity and passes into the periphery. Consequently, Mars as subjective world takes on the signs of an objective world.