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Formal Repetition as a Device Reinforcing the Theme of Powerlessness

Publication date: 19.07.2018

Studia Litteraria Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis, 2018, Volume 13, Issue 2, pp. 125 - 132

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843933ST.18.012.8634

Authors

Sabina Sosin
Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland, Gołębia 24, 31-007 Kraków, Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4420-5916 Orcid
All publications →

Titles

Formal Repetition as a Device Reinforcing the Theme of Powerlessness

Abstract

Innovative authors who explore various narrative techniques have often been inclined to tell one story from several different perspectives. The aim of this paper is to analyze formal repetition employed in three contemporary narratives: J.M. Coetzee’s Diary of a Bad Year (2007), Dariusz Orszulewski’s Jezus nigdy nie był aż taki blady (2013), as well as House Mother Normal (1971) by these authors’ avant-garde predecessor, B.S Johnson. Johnson was an author ahead of his time, better fitted in the literary discourse of the 21st century, which is proven by his presently republished oeuvre having gained fresh literary significance among both scholars and readers. Each of the novels subject to analysis in this study is compiled from thoughts and observations of the same events but originating from different characters. Their individual accounts, typographically separated from each other, create a multitude of perspectives on the mental and physical inadequacy felt by the characters.
 

References

Bernaerts L., Minds at Play. Narrative Games and Fictional Minds in B.S. Johnson’s House Mother Normal, “Style2014, vol. 48, no. 3, p. 294−312.

Coetzee J.M., Diary of a Bad Year, London 2007.

Fajfer Z., Liberature or Total Literature, ed. and transl. K. Bazarnik, Kraków 2010.

Hall A., Disability and Life Writing in Coetzee’s Later Works, “Journal of Literary
& Cultural Disability Studies2014, vol. 6, no. 1, p. 53−67.

Johnson B.S., House Mother Normal [in:] B.S. Johnson Omnibus, London 2004,
p. 5−204.

Jordan J., B.S. Avant-Garde Possibilities – B.S. Johnson and the Sixties Generation [in:] Johnson and Post-War Literature: Possibilities of the Avant-Garde, eds.
J. Jordan, M. Ryle,New York 2014, p. 1−13.

Orszulewski D., Jezus nigdy nie był aż taki blady, Kraków 2013.

Porter Abbott H., Time, Narrative, Life, Death & Text-Type Distinctions: The Example of Coetzee’s Diary of a Bad Year, “Narrative” 2011, vol. 19, no. 2, p. 187−200.

Puchner M., J.M. Coetzee’s Novels of Thinking, “Raritan” 2011, vol. 30, no. 4,
p. 1−12.

Tredell N., Geriatric Comedy: House Mother Normal[in:] N. Tredell Fighting Fictions: The Novels of B.S. Johnson, Nottingham 2010, p. 100−110.

Information

Information: Studia Litteraria Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis, 2018, Volume 13, Issue 2, pp. 125 - 132

Article type: Original article

Titles:

Polish:
Formal Repetition as a Device Reinforcing the Theme of Powerlessness
English:
Formal Repetition as a Device Reinforcing the Theme of Powerlessness

Authors

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4420-5916

Sabina Sosin
Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland, Gołębia 24, 31-007 Kraków, Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4420-5916 Orcid
All publications →

Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland, Gołębia 24, 31-007 Kraków, Poland

Published at: 19.07.2018

Article status: Open

Licence: CC BY-NC-ND  licence icon

Percentage share of authors:

Sabina Sosin (Author) - 100%

Article corrections:

-

Publication languages:

English