Artistic means of representation of sociocultural issues in the works of Thomas Bernhard

UDC 821.122.2(436)-3

https://doi.org/10.20339/PhS.6-21.121

Norets Maxim V.,

Doctor of Philology, Associate Professor, Head of the Translation

Theory and Practice Department

Institute of Foreign Philology

Vernadsky Crimean Federal University

e-mail: mnorets@yandex.ru

Elkan Olga B.,

Doctor of Art History, Associate Professor,

Head of the Music Department

Crimean University of Culture, Arts and Tourism

e-mail: elkan.79@mail.ru

The article is devoted to sociocultural issues in the works of Thomas Bernhard, the Austrian writer and the playwright of the twentieth century. Born in 1931, the eyewitnesses of nazi transformations, Thomas was too young to resist them. The period of his personal formation was marked by the drams of a more personal, family character, which, nevertheless, later, the writer will always feel as closely associated with the historical destinies of the country and the world. His own childhood and adolescence, dramatic and traumatic, become for the writer permanent source of dramatic literary plots, the main characters of which will be confused, desperate people, losers and travels, unable to cope with the challenges of fate. In this case, the fiction in his works is often almost impossible to separate from the introduced autobiographical material. The numerous works of Bernhard demonstrate the Austrian mass consciousness, full of shame, guilt, disgust to yourself, escapism. Bernhard shows an acutely critical attitude towards the Austrian society and the state that did not get rid of the Nazi past. However, the writer does not declare his social views directly and unequivocally. Special inaccessibility and hints are much more characteristic of his prose. As a result of the analysis of the most striking works by Bernhard (“Frost”, “The Loser”, “Amras”, “Old masters”, “Yes”, “Correction”, “The Lime Works”, “Beton”, “Gargoyles”) some typical artistic techniques are identified — autobiographical reception, eccentricity, monologism (as a symbol of loneliness, removal, isolation from society, acute individualism and even sociophobia), emotional saturation (the spectrum of emotions is monotonous: most often it is deep disappointment, sadness and grief, anxiety and a cured fear), mosaic of narration, motivation of the reader to joint, “interactive” reflection and independent conclusions, some techniques of “musicalization” of literary text.

Keywords: literature of Austria, sociocultural issues, representation, artistic means, T. Bernhard.

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