GENRE ORIGINALITY OF NOVEL “WAR WITH THE SALAMANDERS” BY KAREL ČAPEK

Анотація

The article is devoted to the genre originality of the novel “War with the Salamanders” by Czech writer Karel Čapek (1936). Its goal is to analyse the author`s precept to unite artistic possibilities connected with various genre modifications of the novel: from Renaissance to postmodern traditions. Synthetic and polyphonic novel form, created by Karel Čapek in the process of artistic experiment, is based on using various discursive practices: folklore (animal tale), philosophical (Socratic dialogue, academic dispute, treatise, report), journalistic and popular science (newspaper and magazine article), colloquially-everyday (dialogues between the representatives of different cultural, social, gender, age groups) and others. All of them are united due to the parody-satirical re-creation within the borders of author’s intention, subordinate to the task to emphasize the deviation of the modern individual and mass consciousness from the humanistic norm. Based on the different traditions that determine the evolution of the European novel, Karel Čapek follows the gradual changes that happened to the “European humanity” in the process of moving from the New to the Newest time. The author artistically diagnoses the reasons for the transition from the gradual development of culture to the rapid take-off of civilization, from anthropocentric personal thinking to mass intellectual speculation, pragmatically oriented towards disguising a cannibalistic pursuit of success and profit. Especially important in this regard are the developments of the adventurous, socio-psychological and social, family, fantasy, satirical, anti-utopian, intellectual and philosophical novels, which are transformed in the context of the parable created by Chápek about man and humanity, outlining and at the same time denying the postmodern appeal to the whole preliminary development of literature by the seriousness of the game initiated by the author.

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.28925/2412-2475.2019.139