A New Historical novel: traditions, evolution and specifics of the genre by the example of Barry Unsworth's novel "Morality Play"

Sadovnikova Yuliya Mikhailovna ORCID: 0000-0003-4788-0490 Postgraduate student of the Literature Department of Kaluga State University named after K.E. Tsiolkovsky 248000, Russia, Kaluga region, Kaluga, lane Voskresenskiy, 4 OrangeLioness@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

The historical novel is one of the most popular literary genres today. The very concept of a "historical novel" has been well known to literary critics since the 19th century.

Despite the large number of literary works, there are still controversial points in determining the genre structure of the historical novel, the features of its poetics. This is due to the fact that for most scientists, the focus is on history, not genre theory. The points of view of literary critics and critics on the historical novel can be divided depending on the assessment of one or another criterion. Thus, one group of researchers (Pautkin 1983, Shchedrina 1997, Dronova 1999, etc.) considers the defining features of a historical novel to be the real, documented existence of persons and events depicted in the novel. Another part of researchers (Kozhinov 1996, Tamarchenko 1999, etc.) consider not the historical material itself, but the author's attitude to it, to be decisive. Following this logic, a novel is historical if it reveals the patterns of social life and creates a unique image of the era. Some scientists (Lenoble 1977, Oskotsky 1980, Petrov 1984, etc.) believe that the author's conscious attitude to maintaining a distance between modernity and the described epoch is crucial.

The fundamental principle of the historical novel is the truth of history. This concept includes components defining the historical epoch: social patterns, trends in social development, the place and role of the people at the historical stage. And the artistic truth presented in the author's interpretation should not contradict the historical truth.

Literature, as you know, reflects reality. What is the object of reflection in a historical novel? History, i.e. historical events described by historians and interpreted by the author of a historical novel.

Through reading a historical novel, we get acquainted with the history of the past, with the events of bygone days. The artistic picture of the past, first of all, reflects the spiritual experience and moral potential of a contemporary. The writer, exploring history, starts from the problems of the present day and tries to find more optimal ways to solve them. This explains the constant interest in the genre of the historical novel.

"Artistic truth as an aesthetic category appears in art in a special way, depending on the method of direction and genre of the work" [6: 45]. It seems to us that it is difficult to solve it by calling for the vastness of fiction and limiting the limits of documentalism. Its solution may be subject to such principles of research, which, on the one hand, are able to identify similar forms in a huge variety, on the other hand, to detect patterns of certain manifestations of artistic truth in these forms. I. Varfolomeev calls these similar forms "typical stability" and believes that "a stable manifestation of artistic truth can act and a peculiar element of confirmation of the regularity of a specific type of stability in the genre nature of historical novelistics" [3:24].

The historical novel, according to J.S. Reinecke, "has become a hybrid genre, combining two principles – literature and history. That is, the author of a historical novel creates a fictional world based on real historical evidence" [8:26].

The main part

B.M. Proskurnin argues that "a historical novel of the Walterscott type means a work in which a verbal and figurative understanding of historical trends (patterns) dominates, connecting the past and present into a single stream of time, determining the fate and inner world of the hero, that is, the person of the epoch reconstructed by the writer and inevitably including him in the process of creating history" [7:23].

Scott's historical novel organically combines historical fact and fiction. Scott believed that fiction is a conscious device of a novelist, and the tasks of a writer are similar to those of a historian. The historical novelist, in Scott's opinion, elevates the novel to a new high level and equates it with historical works. In a review of The Sid Chronicles, Scott wrote: "Regardless of whether Sid's story is true or fictional, it is of great value as a kind of moral picture." In Scott's novels, real and fictional events are intertwined, real historical characters are described along with fictional characters. Not only historical events are restored (the task of the historian), but also people's thoughts and feelings (novel technique). Therefore, the historical novel claims to be more truthful than historical science.

The question of the mandatory presence of a real historical character in a novel about the past is controversial. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Soviet historical novelists began to depict images of historical figures, and this explained the main requirement of a novel about the past – the presence of a real historical personality. Some scientists, for example, S. Petrov, L. Alexandrova, consider the main feature of a historical novel to be the creation of an image of a real person, a representative of a historical epoch. Other researchers ignore the importance of the presence of real figures in the novel about the past: "the presence of historical characters in it, a geographically accurately fixed place of action, and a documented accurate reproduction of the realities of the era are secondary" [5:14].

B. M. Proskurnin in his article "The Modern English Historical Novel: Tradition and dialogue with it" gives a problematic overview of the dynamics of the national English tradition of the historical novel genre from the moment of its final design in the early 19th century to the modern stage of the genre paradigm development and insists that "the modern (i.e. post-postmodern) British historical novel "has returned" the tradition of reconstructing history in its entirety is dominated by the introduction of "totality" in the approach to reproducing the past, the emphasis is not only on socio-political and chronological ("date") historical staples, but also on other, especially culturological staples, i.e. on culturemes marking historical time (household, artifact, material, spiritual, moral, mass media, interior, home and household arrangements, clothing, food, leisure, reading circle, etc.). In the latest historical novels of the post-postmodern stage, the game with historical times has decreased, or even completely disappeared, when the narrative (and/or plot) deliberately exposed the temporal plusquamperfect (the presence of the past in the present out of a desire to emphasize history as a continuum); the tradition, begun by V. Scott, of "plot passing" the historical process through the inner world of the hero, not necessarily the hero in the literal sense of the word, but certainly "placed" in a dense and, if possible, integral "body" of the story [7: 8].

Barry Unsworth's novel “Morality Play”, published in 1995, plunges us into the dark Middle Ages. We see England at the end of the XIV century – not the best time, gripped by famine and pestilence. The main characters of the novel are a traveling troupe of six comedians – a theater on four wheels. The actors of this theater are beggars, eternally hungry enthusiasts who put their whole soul into their work. The theater of that distant era was noticeably different from what we see on stage today. The actors took on the roles of the characters, improvised, changing the composition of the characters as the play progressed, but never deviating too far from the traditional storyline. Their faces were hidden under masks of allegorical characters personifying vice or virtue.

The genre of morality follows a clear pattern of rewards and punishments, but the play that the characters come up with, based on real things, turns out to be an improvisation that does not know how it will end. When coming up with a script, replicas, the actors act within the framework of the usual morality:

"We decided to play it in the form of morality, using some ready-made speeches that the comedians learned a long time ago, each in his own role, but relying more on gestures and pantomime, interspersing them with immediately composed words" [1:61].

In Barry Unsworth's works, the past figures as something much more significant than the fruit of careful research and costumed staging. His novels are deeply emotional and the feelings of the characters – indifference and madness, fear and courage, joy and anger – are alive and real. At the same time, historical characters remain people of their era, with their own worldview and value system, and are also tested by their own fears, shortcomings and weaknesses. For historical characters, the author often chooses the image of marginals and losers, as he considers them more sincere, and their lives closer to reality and the present [4: 89].

The novel demonstrates a new approach to the genre of the historical novel, different from the traditional Walterscott. The new historical novel and metaphysical detective story can be viewed through the prism of new historical fiction, which focuses on the historical aspects of the narrative, accurately recreating the historical setting with each fictional character and event, and inviting the reader into the reality of the XIV century. The murder investigation is a key element of the novel's plot, but it is significant only because of the recreated historical setting in which it takes place. Medieval drama plays an important role here, especially the author's version of the transformation of a religious drama into a secular one.

The transformation of genre forms is characteristic of modern literature. Barry Unsworth's novel is of particular interest because it synthesizes a combination of several genres and at the same time recreates the picture of the formation of a new genre for that era – morality.

In the novel, the author shows that every person plays a role in life, like a poor comedian and a rich gentleman in a play. Regardless of social status or status, people play roles and wear masks all their lives. The author equates knights, lords and judges to comedians performing on the show, showing that all people are initially equal and, in principle, no different from each other. All people are equal, even in the face of death. No matter who you are – a benefactor, a nobleman, a judge or a beggar, no matter what role we play in life – one day we will all play our last role, and death will become the audience. "Now he was leaving the scene of the Game, deprived of all roles except for this last one– dying– which awaits us all." [1:90]. Thus, the author emphasizes truly Christian ideas such as the primacy of the soul, the spiritual path, the need for asceticism to take care of the inner world, the senselessness of greed, lust and hoarding, as well as the innate natural equality of man before God and death.

Conclusion

The author uses the technique of the literature of "new historicism". Along with the canons of the historical novel of the XIX century, B. Unsworth resorts to the traditional techniques of the historiographical meta-novel of the postmodern era.

B. Unsworth's novel "Moralite" mixes life and art, viewers and actors, the real and the unreal, which, on the one hand, demonstrates the specifics of the medieval mentality, which does not draw boundaries between the sacred and the profane, and on the other hand, implements the writer's postmodern view of the world beyond borders and systems. Such an interweaving of plans is possible due to genre generalization. With this technique, the author avoids the status of "mass character" of his novel, focusing on a culturally developed audience. Barry Unsworth in "Morality" manages to meet the modern demands of society without ignoring the established canons of each of the genres used.

"Before Walter Scott, there was no true novel... The novels of the eighteenth century... depicted not society, not people, not reality, but signs of a sick or idle imagination. Walter Scott was the first to show what a novel should be" [2:278]. Since the time of W. Scott, the novel has undergone a number of changes, the controversy surrounding this genre of literature continues to this day, its viability and significance concern writers and literary critics in all countries.

The diversity of points of view makes it possible to better understand the multifaceted nature of this genre and its impact on both literature and the understanding of history. The authors of historical novels help to recreate the historical picture of the past and allow readers to see the world through the eyes of those who lived in other times. A historical novel can be not only an entertaining genre, but also a tool for studying history, arousing interest in the past and raising important questions about how people live and act at different times.