The nomadic principle in the novel “Flights” by Olga Tokarczuk

Abstract

The article deals with the novel “Flights” by Olga Tokarczuk, Polish writer, awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature, in the context of nomadological theory of postmodernism. The article’s theoretical basis draws from poststructuralist studies by J. Deleuze and F. Guattari. Their work proposes a new approach to the concept of modern human existence, introducing the concepts of “nomad” and “rhizome”. The analysis of Tokarchuk’s novel “Flights” reveals its nomadological basis, which is determined by the compositional principles of decentralisation, dynamism, and variation of the artistic form and content of the text. The conceptual foundations of both the novel “Flights” and Tokarczuk’s entire literary work are set out in her book “Czuły narrator”, in which she argues for the introduction of a new type of narrator into prose – the fourth-person narrator, who is able to incorporate the point of view of each character, to see more and further, and to exist outside of time. The “Flights” contains allusions to Russian culture, specifically to the worldview of the “runners” (beguny) (or “wanderers”), Old Believers who believed that movement was the only way to salvation. The existential status of the novel’s characters is determined by the fluid nature of personality and explained by the narrator’s statement of the instability of human identity. The artistic specificity of not only the analysed novel but also of Tokarchuk’s entire oeuvre is determined by themes such as migration, escape from traditions and stereotypes, the psychological and social aspects of the nomadic way of life.