POLYMORPHIC POST-CORPOREALITY IN TRANSREALIST NARRATIVE

Abstract

Trans-Realism is a literary trend combining elements of science fiction and documentary and factual naturalistic realism. Although the founder of the trend, the American writer and scientist Rudy Rucker considered it to be a branch of science fiction, this phenomenon has by far transcended the limits of traditional genres of science fiction and appeals to the old Gothic novel, the novel of alternative history, as well as Eastern philosophies. Here formally belongs G. Saunders’ novel, the winner of the 2017 Booker Prize, although the post-mortem stay in bardo, a term borrowed from Buddhism and apllied by the author in his quasihistorical novel, relies not so much on Oriental philosophy, as on contemporary Western post-humanism, with its non-linear understanding of corporeality. One of trans-realist tenets is subjective perception of the physical world and focalization through subjects. The research combining the narratological approach with the philosophy of corporeality explores the discourse of post-corporeality as a narrative technique in G. Saunders’ fiction constructed in the form of a dramatic polylogue with numerous documentary and pseudo-documentary testimonies, all complete with fictional characters’ monologues and utterances in the state between death and eternity. Thus, despite the fact that trans-realistic novel is based on a fantastic premise, it remains, in its essence, realistic, even historical, and the figure of President Lincoln looks credible even under such circumstances. Much of this contributes to the assertion of post-corporeality as a new somatic reality of the novel narration.