Explication of the Motif of Alienation and the Forms of Its Overthrow in I. Mcewan’s Novel «Solar»

Abstract

The research of Ian McEwan’s novel “Solar” (2010) will help to delineate the transformational dynamics of the postmodern to post-postmodern novel and to characterize the configurations of such changes in the contemporary British novel.The purpose of the study is to outline the thematic units and problem areas that reveal the genre specifics of the contemporary British novel, determining the narrative feature of the novel “Solar” by I. McEwan.Results of research. It has been determined in what way the ironic mode is represented in the novel “Solar”. The philosophical parameters of the narrator, the worldview characteristics of the protagonist, the way of interaction of irony and seriousness (philosophical, confessional) in the novel, which British literary critics describe as an example of a comic work, have been discussed. At the same time, the spectrum of socio-psychological problems that reveal the critical attitude of the narrator to a number of problems of the contemporary academic science has been analyzed. The innovative aspects explained in the novel, in particular at the thematic level (new complexes of existential problems related to the devastation of the protagonist, his alienation and loss of values in life), as well as the general guidelines of the narrator (author) on innovation, which is realized even in the linguistic aspect due to the excess of occasionalisms (author's neologisms) have been outlined. The way in which external conditions determine Michael’s alienation is studied, and it has been determined how the motif of the path (way) explicated in the novel helps the character to be “born again” in the “new life”. It is analyzed what internal transformations take place inside the character in order to break the vicious circle of academic and existential problems and reach the level of perception of life in the categories of purpose and happiness. The scope of problems related to the critique of the contemporary science (imitation, plagiarism, bureaucracy, routine and numerous bureaucratic obstacles to innovative researches, lack of interest, banal fatigue experienced by the protagonist, and unwillingness to help younger colleagues in the implementation of their heuristic projects, etc.) have been spotlighted in the research .