The didactic potential of the genre of family chronicles in the mass literature of Great Britain of the XXI century

Novikova Vera ORCID: 0000-0002-7398-3867 Doctor of Philology Novikova Vera G. Professor in the Department of Foreign Literature Lobachevsky National Research University of Nizhni Novgorod 23 Gagarin Ave., Nizhny Novgorod, 603000, Russia wnovikova@mail.ru

Introduction

In pedagogy, didactic potential is understood "as a set of methods, means, forms and methods of teaching that ensure the effectiveness of achieving learning goals ^{[1, p. 43]}. In a broad humanitarian sense, the most important part of didactics is the process of socialization of the individual, that is, "the process of integrating an individual into a social system, entering a social environment through mastering its social norms, rules and values, knowledge, skills that allow him to function successfully in society" ^{[2, p. 59]}. The study of literature in terms of didactic intention can be considered as one of the options for an axiological approach to the literary process, which is especially relevant in terms of studying the phenomenon of the value of mass literature.

 In the UK, it is the socialization of the individual that becomes the meaning of the novel of upbringing, and, more broadly, the social novel of the XVIII-XIX centuries. After the Glorious Revolution of 1688, which gave impetus to the formation of a new type of state with pluralistic political institutions, which, in turn, led to a gigantic work on the formation of a new public consciousness, the whole set of humanitarian efforts is aimed at forming a community of people with a clearly expressed desire to assimilate rules, laws, norms, and the establishment of a distinct hierarchy of values. Throughout the 19th century, the idea of the movement of history expanded and the idea of historical progress was formulated more and more clearly, which led to the natural appearance at the beginning of the twentieth century of the genre of family chronicle, one of the achievements of the social novel, which introduced the reader to the understanding of the relationship between man and the historical process.

In literary studies, the study of the genre is actively continuing to the present day. Among the most recent works, the works of E. V. Nikolsky ^[3-4], O.A. Donskikh ^[5], and N.M. Lokteva ^[6] should be cited. An overview of numerous articles and monographs of English literary criticism is presented in the article by Lokteva N.M. and Balich D.A. ^[7].

E. V. Nikolsky considers the family chronicle to be a genre, "the subject of which is the depiction of the life of several (usually from two to four) generations of the same family. The authors of the family chronicle compare the fates of different generations, identify their similarities and differences, record the continuity of generations in the context of epochs. The history of the family is able to concisely contain the history of the country in one or another dramatic era"^{[3, p. 50]}. This definition is based on classical models created in different countries in the first decades of the twentieth century.  The genre of the family chronicle of this period "testifies either to the collapse of the empire, or to the decline of the old state through the conflict of generations, through its change, the breakdown of the way of life, the collapse of the old patriarchal family. In these circumstances, the writers "begin to search for stable, core values that resist the energy of decay. The family becomes such a value" ^[8].  

In the UK, the classic example of the genre was the "Saga of the Forsytes" by John Galsworthy (1906-1921). The culturological analysis undertaken by A. S. Labunova allowed us to give another characteristic of the "Foresight Saga": "John Galsworthy in the novel very accurately described the life of the representatives of the upper class of society, their ideals, norms and values, which are the basis of the socio-cultural space of the passing century. The socio–cultural space in the novel is a real battlefield, where there is a fierce struggle between the values and norms of two eras" ^{[9, p. 216]}. We emphasize that, despite the ferocity of the above-mentioned clash, Galsworthy in no way loses the idea of historical progress, believing that the current turning point in history leads to a better future, new core values.

             The potential of the genre was so significant that it was used throughout the century.  The purpose of this article is to study English family chronicles created at the turn of the XX–XX1 centuries, in terms of translating ethical values into them.  

The research material includes novels by E. Howard, R. Pilcher, G. Swift, E. Rutherford, D. Lennox, K. Morton. 

Family chronicles in the context of a postmodern worldview

By the new turn of the century, the ideological position of the authors had radically changed. Despite the fact that the style of thinking that replaced the classical European type of consciousness has markedly different interpretations corresponding to the specifics of different national mentalities, there are common features. And no one living at the end of the century could escape this influence.  The tragedy of the Second World War led to the recognition of the impossibility of historical progress, the idea of the end of history. There is an all-consuming tendency to rethink the "great ideas", the value orientations of the recent past, in order to overcome their totalizing influence. The struggle with the totality of consciousness leads to the idea of destroying any opposition and, accordingly, abandoning all centering grounds. The main loss in this destruction was the loss of the division into Good and Evil, that is, the basis for any ethical constructions.

            Is the didactic potential possible in the literature of this period?  Let us recall the famous question of the philosopher H. Arendt: Is literature possible after Auschwitz?

An appeal to the literary process of Great Britain reveals a significant number of family chronicles. All these books are very different in their artistic qualities, in most cases they can be attributed, obviously, to a high level of mass literature.

At the turn of the XX-XX1 centuries, a vivid example of the classical form of family chronicle was the cycle of five novels by E. D. Howard (1923 — 2014) "The Chronicle of the Cazalet family" (Cazalet Chronicles). The first four novels were published from 1990 to 1995. The fifth book in the series "Everything Changes" was published in the fall of 2013. In all novels, the tradition of linear storytelling is preserved: the time of action begins in 1937 and ends in the 1950s. Already in connection with this chronicle, we recall that in the second half of the century, English literature was characterized by a "fascination with history", repeatedly noted by critics ^[10-13]. At the same time, the main events of history for the vast majority of authors remain the First and Second World Wars and the interwar decades. The first novel of the series "The Carefree Years" (The Light Years) is imbued with the atmosphere of the interwar decades, which is simultaneously full of tragic memories of the Great War and at the same time the happiness of peaceful life. During this period, the British strive to preserve the ethical and emotional complex characteristic of the Edwardian period of British history, i.e. the first years of the twentieth century (before 1914), which were called the "golden day", a time of "long afternoon summer vacation"^[14]. The ancestors of the Casalet clan are William, born in 1860, and his wife Kitty (Duchy), born in 1867.  The main place of action is their manor, a family nest, similar to those whose depiction formed the tradition of the English manor novel and became the concentration of the traditional values of the country, the most important part of the national mentality. The manor in the novel is called Home Place. All family members gather here – three sons with their wives and children, an unmarried daughter lives here. The action ends in 1938 with Chamberlain's speech about the Munich agreement with Germany. The title of the second novel "Frozen Time" (Marking Time) is associated with the name "Strange War" (Phoney War) in the well-known British sense that from September 1939, when Great Britain announced its entry into the war, no military operations were conducted until May 1940. The country seems to freeze in anticipation of terrible shocks. The next three novels "Confusion", "Exodus" (Casting Off), "Everything Changes" (All Change) depict the war years, the first post-war years, the 50s.

Based on the French family chronicles of the first third of the twentieth century, Z. I. Kirnose makes a correct observation: "In the works of this genre there is a "special generic time, organically attached, incremented to the life of the family. In the periods of matchmaking and grooming, honeymoons and fetal maturation, the growing up of sons and daughters, the transformation of themselves into husbands and wives, there is a natural rhythm determined by both human nature and age-old family institutions" ^{[15, p. 157]}. It is very suitable for the "Chronicle of the Casalet family", full of a wide variety of family events, described with psychological accuracy the relationships between members of a large family clan, hundreds of details of everyday life and lifestyle. This is really a chronicle not only of the family, but also of the whole country in a particularly difficult period for it. The family business, which has been run by men of the Casalet family for half a century and which will collapse after the war, also takes its place.

The ethical value of this chronicle, as well as all subsequent ones, which will be considered further, lies in the immutability of the approach to the second war as necessary for the destruction of fascism, the constant, in one moral way, description of the late 30s in Germany as a time of unambiguously anti-human relations, concentration camps as a concentration of the tragedy of civilization. One of the heroes of the Casalets committed suicide after visiting the newly liberated death camps in 1945. Of course, there are references to the Great War. The second generation of Casalets – three sons, two of whom participated in the war of 1914-1918, one of them lost an arm.  It should be noted at the same time that in many chronicles of this and other authors, the image of a pacifist, a refusenik, passing from novel to novel almost unchanged, relevant in the first war and much more contradictory in the second, is almost mandatory.

In the depiction of the second war, a sense of duty to the state is cultivated as a fair organization of people, each of whom is obliged to adequately endure all difficulties (food on cards, hunger, bombing, death and suffering of many, etc.) and steadily serve the fatherland in its place.  The sense of duty, along with the norms of behavior in family and social life, show the English mentality, which was not lost by either the author or his readers at the end of the century, despite all the pressure of circumstances.

R. Pilcher's novel (1924-2019) "Coming Home" (1995) has a similar meaning. The linear chronology shows the events of the thirties, the war, and the first postwar years. In the center is the story of a girl whose parents live in the East, in colonial England and die there during military operations. The heroine herself leads a typical lifestyle for an English teenager, girl, young woman in England, experiences the hardships of war with her surroundings, serves in the auxiliary forces. This is a kind of idealized image, since it translates those norms of behavior that are exemplary in the most traditional sense of the word.

The heroines of the novel by D. Lennox (born in 1953) "Winter House" (Winter House, 1996) are not so perfect. These are three friends who begin adulthood with quite different social positions, and gain life experience in the same interwar decades. From the great history, the war in Spain takes its place here, and again it is interpreted from the position of condemning all types of fascism and related violence against the individual. It should be remembered here that many young Englishmen voluntarily took a direct part in the Spanish war.

Researchers of the family novel rightly believe "the linear principle is especially important for the family chronicle, because it is in this case that the perception of historical phenomena becomes more holistic and objective, cause-and-effect relationships and patterns are better traced" ^{[16, p.240]}. The novels reviewed certainly prove this position. However, it can be argued that they belong to the most conservative authors.

Since the 70s, the influence of postmodern thinking has been increasingly felt. To understand the interpretation of history, it is important to take into account that decisive changes are taking place in the field of ideas about the nature of objectivity. History is presented not as an unambiguously interpreted set of facts, collectively arranged in the "arrow of time" of historical progress, but as narratives, subjective stories about these facts. The intertwining of the narratives of history does not allow us to grasp the patterns of social development.  The author of one of the most famous American family sagas, "The Eighth Day" (1967), T. Wilder, on its last page, offers a metaphor remarkable in its accuracy, which was subsequently repeatedly quoted: "History is a solid tapestry. Attempts to snatch a piece of it with a glance larger than a palm are in vain. The pattern that the threads form is hidden from you. There is a lot of debate about the drawing that is woven on the tapestry. Others feel as if they see him. Others see only what they are told to see. Others remember that they once saw this drawing, but then forgot. Others interpret it as a symbol of the gradual liberation of all the oppressed and exploited on earth. Others draw strength from the belief that there is no drawing at all. Others..."^{[17, p. 510]}.  Thus, each story of the hero turns out to be a piece snatched from the tapestry, from which "threads stick out". The history of several generations links many of them, clarifies the drawing, but it remains only a fragment of the vast space of the great history of mankind.  Philosopher X. Arend states: "What is lost is the continuity of the past. What we are left with is still the past, but the past is already fragmented" ^[18].

Accordingly, in the family chronicles of the last decades of the twentieth and the first XX1 centuries, the linear sequence is usually violated. Graham Swift's "Vodozemye" can be considered a sample. Significant words appear in the epigraph: "History (Latin Historia, ae), J.R.: "1. Research, investigation, study of any issue. 2. (a) A narrative about the past, (b) In general, any form of narration: a report, a story, a fairy tale" ^{[18, p. 6]}. The second epigraph: "We lived in the edge of the swamps ..." ("Great Hopes") is a reference to the novel by Charles Dickens, which is meaningful in the context of the further narrative. The novel tells the story of the life of Tom Crick, a history teacher. She is connected by many threads with the lives of his parents, his peers, near and far, with the biographies of the ancestors of all these people – the Victorians. All these threads, in turn, are part of a great history – the industrial Revolution in England, the Great Revolution in France, the wars of the twentieth century. In many cases, the events of private life turn out to be the consequences of the interaction of the actions of individuals and the deep processes of social development. History cannot be interpreted objectively, but everyone should be responsible for their actions. So paradoxically, the English author combines traditional ethical norms with the decentered chaos of postmodern historiography. The novel, with all the fragmented elements of the family chronicle, reflects an important idea of modernity — humanity has as many stories as there are people who make up humanity itself. The fragmentation and failure of the sequence means that postmodernity is the era of commentary on events, it is impossible to identify the meaning, since the very idea of progress has been lost.

            In the natural sciences in this era, the term "wormhole" is often used, understood as the space-time equivalent of quantum entanglement. The writer D. Fowles, recognized as a classic of English literature during his lifetime, uses this term to name a collection of his essays and writes in the preface: "The Oxford Encyclopedic Dictionary interprets it as follows: "Hypothetical relationships between far-apart regions of space-time"... the very complex space-time in which I exist, albeit very far from modern physics, is the space-time of my own imagination. All serious writers are constantly looking – each for himself – for "wormholes" that could connect them with other areas, other worlds" ^{[20, p. 7]}. The novels of E. Rutherford (born 1949) "Sarum" become an example of wormholes. A Novel about England" (Sarum, 1987), "Russian" (Russka, 1991), "London" (London, 1997), "Royal Forest. A Novel about England" (The Forest, 1997), "Dublin" (Dublin: Foundation (2000), "Ireland" (Ireland: Awakening, 2004) New York (New York, 2009) Paris (Paris, 2013). In each of them, many fragments of a certain number (three to four) of family chronicles are intertwined with national stories. The "tapestries of history" he collects in London, Dublin, New York, Russia, etc. claim to immerse themselves in national identities through the interaction of intrahistory and events of private lives. It is characteristic that the grandiose kaleidoscope of fragments is arranged in a clear linear sequence of specific dates, preserving a consistent movement from the past to the present, which in the next episode becomes the future, etc.

A feature of most family chronicles of recent decades is precisely the violation of linearity, in the sense that digressions into the past (retrospectives, flashbacks) are used. The apt term "revisited the past" is often used in criticism. A stereotypical formula is created in which a frame structure is used. A frame is an event that prompts a specific person to recall memories or to collect information from outsiders about past events related to the history of one family. Inside the frame there is a family chronicle, the sequence of events in which is built exclusively in the reader's mind. The abundance of narrators creates a sense of possible bias of what is being told. It is imperative to include these particular narratives in the larger narrative of history. Again, as a rule, we are talking about world wars and related events.

This is the novel by Rosamund Pilcher (1924-2019) "The Shell Seekers" (1987). The frame structure represents the memories of the main character, Penelope Killing, who bought herself a small house in an English province in her old age. Retrospectives are related to childhood. This is how the characteristics of the older generation appear: the father is a world–famous artist who married a young French woman at an advanced age. Their mutual love, the idyll of their life together in Cornwall, by the sea, in a house surrounded by a beautiful garden, together create that special attitude that their daughter inherited. Like her parents, she has that personality quality called artistry and allows her to "make her life a work of art" (in the formulation of the pre-Raphaelites, of which her father was a late representative). Such a model of being is inherent in an idealized view of the interwar decades, which by the end of the century had become one of the cliches of the British mass novel. Penelope Killing's artistry did not help her avoid an unsuccessful marriage, but allowed her to create a home for her three children. However, they appreciated it not in childhood, but much later. Another particularly significant group of flashback episodes is related to the Second World War. And finally, the panorama of life after 1945 and the life of a new generation of the family unfolds sequentially.

Kate Morton's novel (b. 1976) "When the Fog Clears" (The House at Riverton, 1998). The same scheme, where the frame structure represents the memories of a certain Grace Reeves, a former maid at the Riverton estate in the 1920s. The Hollywood director is going to make a film about the events of 1924, of which she is the only survivor. During a summer party at the estate, a famous poet, still very young, committed suicide. In connection with this event, the story of a family of aristocrats – the owners of the estate - unfolds.

The frame of the narrative in D. Lennox's novel "The Ghost of a former Love" (1997) becomes an order for writing a biography received by a young writer Rebecca Bennett. The story of her character Tilda Franklin: the mystery of her birth, her activities, her children – is also made up of separate, non-linearly arranged fragments. The moral values in this novel are connected with the plots about the rescue of Jewish children from Germany and Austria in the late 30s.  Tilda's activities in rescuing abandoned children after the war are also revealed in detail. In addition, the stories of women who gave birth to children out of wedlock at the beginning of the century and were placed in psychiatric clinics for this make a strong impression.

The theme of war becomes central in L. Fleming's dilogy "Penelope's Secret" and "Penelope's Wanderings" (The Girl under the Jlive Tree, 2013). The novels alternate between episodes of the heroine's life in 2001 and 1941. The action is transferred from the UK to Crete and back.  The story of Penny Georgias's family – parents, sister, niece and her children – allows us to reveal the most important topic for British women of gaining personal independence during the war. Young girls who did not have the right to choose their fate, by the will of circumstances and thanks to the strength of their character, acquire their individuality. Penia Georgias becomes the heroine of the Cretan Resistance, before this novel attracted only male writers.

In terms of the problem posed here, one should especially note the charm of family values in most family chronicles written by both women and men. The authors create artistic worlds that are designed to be an ideal model of everyday life. An excellent example in this regard is the above-mentioned novel by R. Pilcher "The Shell Collectors"), where a full-fledged sense of the taste of reality is created and thus the triumph of moral harmony is expressed. The author creates his own artistic world, which is designed to be an ideal model of everyday life

Conclusions

Thus, it can be assumed that modern family chronicles in the UK continue to broadcast the values necessary to understand the events that shook the consciousness of people in the twentieth century. The ideology of fascism is unequivocally negatively assessed, the very constant reference to the history of the events of the Second World War testifies to the importance for British authors of these very lessons of history and the feeling of the need to remind them. The didactic potential of the analyzed works is expressed in the statement of the need to preserve the traditional system of moral values, understanding the socialization of the individual as an introduction to them. In addition, the world of the family is modeled as a world of mutual understanding, compromise. In the center is a positive family model, in some cases clearly idealized. Responsibility and a sense of duty for both men and women are being raised into a cult. Thus, it can be assumed that the postmodern decentering of classical ethics in these works has been overcome.

The obvious influence of the postmodern worldview is expressed in a change in attitudes towards history. At the level of form, this is expressed in a non-linear artistic style (linearity was one of the dominant features of the genre during its formation). The content of such a form lies in the fact that in the very fragmentarity, in the very constant revisitations of the past, it is fundamentally impossible to feel the movement of history.  Accordingly, the very idea of historical progress is being lost, namely, it was the basis of thinking during the creation of the best, canonical family chronicles.