Romanova S. The strategies of construction of postmodern identity in Rosa Montero's novels

The thesis is the first systematic study of prosaic work by contemporary Spanish writer Rosa Montero (her novels The Cannibal's Daughter, 1997, The Heart of the Tartar, 2001, Story of the Transparent King, 2005, Instructions For Saving The World, 2008, Tears in Rain, 2011). The place of Rosa Montero's writing in the context of the literary and historical process of Spain at the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries has been determined in this dissertation. The research of the given subject has led to the conclusion that identity construction forms the central problem field of the whole prose of Rosa Montero. The artistic strategies of de/reconstruction of myth and metanarrative writing that were discovered in all the texts under investigation proved to be the most perspective and the most representative for the understanding of the writer's creative method. The de/reconstruction of myth as the artistic strategy of the post-modernist identity construction is manifested in the texts by Rosa Montero on different levels. The analysis of the content level allowed to fix the appeal to those myths that form the cultural basis of the Western civilization, and are chosen by the writer under the principle of the immediate involvement into the process of Spanish national identity formation (ancient philosophy, ancient Greek myths, Celtic mythology, Arabic tales and Christian myths). It has been revealed that during the process of de/reconstruction the author transforms the significance of the widely known mythologems and fills them with the new unusual contents which correlate with the contemporary person's world perception and motivates the reader to the process of re-examination, reformation of the human experience and to the search of the new intersection points of the space of the text and of the person, intra- and extratextual sense. It has been pointed out that the wide use by the author of the hypertextual space leads to the creation of multilayered and non-hierarchical frame of multi-faceted fictional worlds. The artistic metaphors of crossing have been examined as one of the forms of transient consciousness reflection. The analysis of the structural level has confirmed that the author uses de/reconstruction of archetype by fixing attention on the archetype of the Great Mother as fundamental origin which corresponds to the initial phase of Ego-consciousness formation. The research of the poetical level of Rosa Montero's works testifies successful attempts of stereotypical de/reconstruction which were put in the base of gender identity formation of the traditional society. It has been proved that the motives of dressing and cross-dressing are the specific ones, chosen by the novelist for the solution of the formulated purpose. It has been established that metanarrative writing as productive artistic strategy of the proper Self construction in Rosa Montero's writing performs the functions of modeling and articulation of the identity as well as the therapeutical function (which helps to overcome the fear of death) and the recuperative one (which replaces the descendants).