Oksana Chipak
Kamyanets-Podilskiy Ivan Ohiyenko National University
Scientific Supervisor: M.V. Matkovska
SEMANTICS OF THE ENGLISH LITERARY TALE
(based on J. Rowling’s novel “Harry Potter”)
The article deals with the semantic features of the English literary tale “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” by Joan Rowling, namely reflection of aesthetics and the worldview of his era, borrowing characters, images and plots from folk tales, coexistence of fiction and reality, grotesque world, psychoanalysis of characters, author`s point of view, social assessment of events, etc.
Keywords: literary tale, the Philosopher’s Stone, coding/decoding, fiction, reality, psychoanalysis, social assessment.
The problem of fiction and the literary tale within the framework of English national tradition has been studied by such authors as Jack David Zipes, Liudmila Braude, V. Grishchuk, and others. According to L. Braude: “A literary tale is an author’s, artistic, prose or poetic work based either on folklore sources or a completely original work, mostly fantastic, magical, depicting the incredible adventures of fictional or traditional fairy-tale characters and in some cases focused on children’s work, in which an incredible miracle plays the role of a plot factor, serves as the initial basis for the characterization” [1, p. 17].
Today, a literary tale is an example of double coding, i.e. the text is presented at different levels and depending on the maturity and intelligence of the reader, it is perceived differently. That is why interest in literary tales does not disappear. The mechanism of transformation of a folk tale into a literary one was described by the American researcher J.D. Zipes. In his opinion, the Literary Tale-mime (as he calls it) is the bearer of a certain information model formed by a folk tale, the main purpose of which is to convey new information to society [4, p. 67].
A literary tale is a form that arose based on a folk tale epic, it is an original and unique phenomenon in the world literary tradition as a whole. Storytellers have managed to do the impossible – remaining artists of their time, true to their time, they created images that live throughout the years, stories that millions of people of all ages could read. A prominent representative of the genre of literary fairy tales in the English literature is Joanne Kathleen Rowling and her series of novels about “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” [3, p. 10].
Literary fairy tale contains four stages of formation: assimilation of information by the individual (author); saving the newly created set of information in the memory; verbalization of a literary tale-mime, expressed in a form that can be perceived by others (book); transfer of information to society.
The first literary adaptations of folk tales appeared in the second half of the 17th century. The first representatives of this literary genre were the Italians Giambattista Basile and Francesco Straparola. In the 19th century, fairy tales were recorded by Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault, Hans Christian Andersen.
Our aim is to figure out the semantic peculiarities of the literary tale “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” by J. Rowling as genre. We would try to solve the following tasks: to find out the sources of the origin of this literary tale, its traditional national features, and its interpretation in the English literature. In our investigation we have used the methods of theoretical research (comparison), analysis and synthesis and analogy ones.
In the Joan Rowling’s tales, the elements of the fiction and non-fiction do not simply interact and are often difficult to differentiate; this interpenetration itself becomes the most important means of creating a comic effect.
In the early 19th century, there was an English literary tale and by the middle of the century, it became a full-fledged genre with stable national features. Although the English literary tale is close to folklore, it almost does not turn to traditional fairy tales. The only folklore source to which a literary tale refers is “The tales of Mother Goose”. Also, many of the storytellers take mythology as a basis and also refer to the epic stories.
English literary tales develop with certain traditions. These traditions were started by Charles Dodgson-Lewis Carroll. His books contain everything that can be developed in a literary English fairy tale: ease of storytelling, humor, laughter, sometimes sad notes, play with words, phrases, concepts, parody. As we know, a fairy tale should have a happy ending, but the English fairy tale is an exception. The world in which the characters operate is mostly a reality with a real danger. That is why we do not fully know what will happen to the characters. Writers create difficult circumstances for the hero from which he must find a way out on his own (and not with the help of a magic fairy as it was in a folk tale). This is the peculiarity of the English literary tale; it does not suggest that everything is just fiction that is sure to end well.
The British version of a literary tale has the following special features that distinguish it from the tales of other countries: the protagonist is a child; focus on the entire age category; emphasis on English traditions; one of the main problems – the relationship between children and adults; parody; the hero himself comes to his creator; the authors are usually not children’s writers; a variety of language techniques, wordplay; violation of the rule of “happy ending”.
“Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” is the first part of a series of novels about a survived boy. This literary tale is one of the best traditions of the English literature with many plot clichés. Joan Rowling plays the plots of famous fairy tales and myths in Harry Potter, but the images change. In fairy tales, evil witches fly on brooms, while in Harry Potter it is a way for wizards to move. [3, p. 48–54]. Giants and Werewolves are not only bad characters but also friends of our heroes such as Rubeus Hagrid and Professor Remus Lupine. Cerberus, who in myths guards the entrance to the realm of the dead, appears in the form of a guardian of the Philosopher’s Stone and bears rather not logical, but cute name Fluffy. The philosopher’s stone, which in the imagination of medieval alchemists was to serve as a universal medicine and rejuvenate, in the novel appears as the Resurrection, that is, it allows enduring death [3].
The main character is Harry, an orphan boy raised by his relatives. People do not like the boy, because he is not like everyone else, and they [people] are “… proud of the fact that they were, thank God, absolutely normal” which demonstrates the features of a purely English literary tale. As well as the fact that he is a magician and has to study at the Hogwarts School of Magic private school. This creates an even more misunderstanding between the boy and Dursley family (adults). The real and the magical worlds co-exist. Time flows the same. Ordinary people – Muggle can get into the magical world and witness magic, although they will not remember it later. However, some magicians are Muggle-born, or half-bloods, i.e. their parents are ordinary people, who connect the two worlds even more closely [3].
A large number of adventures make the plot of the work dynamic, exciting. We can easily trace the connection of the novel with the works of adventure literature and the traditions of the English detective Agatha Christie: the suspicion does not fall on the perpetrator, the real criminal is found in the final of the work. Moreover, it is impossible to clearly define one or another genre in the work: the boundaries of genres are blurred. The episode in the Forbidden Forest is a combination of myth, detective, psychological thriller, and classic horror film: “The figure looked up at Harry – the unicorn’s blood was dripping from her mouth. She jumped to her feet and walked quickly to Harry, who could not move from fear” [3, p. 87].
The series of novels about Harry Potter is permeated not only with a fantastic story that fascinates children and adolescents but also permeated with the deep meaning, morality and psychology of the characters that does not allow mature readers to break away from the books. The prospect of considering the issues of literary fairy tales is relevant because every year this genre develops more and more and occupies more significant place in the world of literature.
To sum it up, we may conclude that in the literary tale “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” by Joan Rowling there are traits characteristic of convergence of fictional, scientific and non-fictional discourses, and at the same time there is a bright and original game based on their interaction and interpenetration.
References
- Braude L.Yu. (1985). On the history of the concept of “literary tale”. Izvestiya AN SSSR. Literature and language series. T. 36. №3. P. 10–32.
- Braude, L. Yu. (1979). Skandinavskaja literaturnaja skazka. Moscow, Nauka.
- Rowling, J.K. (2006). Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Kyiv, A-BA-BA-GA-LA-MA-GA.
- Zipes, J. (2001). The Great Fairy tale Tradition. New York and London, W.W. Norton & Company.