Shaparieva N. The artistic world conception in L. F. Celine's trilogy "Castle to castle", "North", "Rigodon"

The thesis is an attempt to reinterpret the heritage of the French writer L. F. Celine (1894-1961) as well as to evaluate aesthetic values of his prose and to define conception of his artistic world in the trilogy Castle to castle, North, and Rigodon. The trilogy is analyzed within the context of modernist aesthetic system of the middle of the 20th century. The modernist features embodied in the L. F. Celine's work are concentration on emotional and sensory aspects of human life, stressing absurdity and tragedy of human existence in hostile environment, immersion of characters' emotions inside themselves due to disbelief in the possibility of being understood by the society. L. F. Celine's art expresses his protest against the existing value system. The anti-war orientation of the trilogy reflects the transformation of forms of human existence in the 20th century. The term of "autofictional novels" was introduced by the author of the dissertation in order to define the genre of the trilogy. L. F. Celine's prose combines both novel features (concentration on the hero's inner world, absence of sharp plot knot, building a large-scale picture of Europe in times of the Second World War) and autofictional features (combination of imaginary and real biographic elements, author, narrator and character coincidence, neglect of document historicity and chronological consistency). The choice of narrative strategies corresponds to the general author's intention to reconstitute the narrator's subjective world-view and emotions since the events of the trilogy are presented through the prism of narrator's consciousness. The chronotope specificity is interpreted in connection with L. F. Celine's world conception and critical world-view. The distinguished "road chronope" and "train chronotope" with inherent motive of meeting and idea of trial create the effect of exact representation of social and historical reality. The application of M. Bakhtine's theory of human body, clothes, food, and excrement allows revealing social inequality, human cruelty and meanness. To stress the absurdity of his artistic world the French writer uses a specific type of narration which includes naturalism, truthfulness, and expressiveness. Emotions and feelings are defined as basis of the trilogy imagery. Its evolution is mainly conditioned by the tragic events of the Second World War. The narrator's indignation is caused by social moral degradation, avidity of almighty state rulers, who put money at the top of value system. The principal means of expressing feelings and state of mind is " method of complaint" which provokes the reader's sympathy and psychological response. By using the comic elements L. F. Celine debunks the defect of the modern society as a whole and of particular individuals.