(Auto)Biographical Forgery as a Means of De-Sacralizing Canonical Author (Arthur Phillips’ “The Tragedy of Arthur”)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31861/pytlit2015.91.034Keywords:
William Shakespeare, Arthur Phillips, (sub)genre “author as character”, Postmodernist play, forgery, canon, cult.Abstract
Due to a number of socio-cultural factors biography (sub)genre “authoras character”has become fairly popular in current biographic writings. It is no wonder that William Shakespeare – the central figure in the Western canon according to H. Bloom – is one of its favorite “heroes”. InhisnovelTheTragedyofArthur (2011) ArthurPhillipsincreasinglyreferredtoasoneofthemostpromisingAmericanwriters of his generationengages his readers in a sophisticated play carried out around Shakespeare as a cult person. TheplayiscenteredonShakespeare’s“unknown”tragedy;itstextisincorporatedintothenovelbeingamasterfulstylizationimitating conventions and language of Elizabethan drama. ThebulkofthenovelhastheformofanIntroductiontotheplayrelatingthelatter’sstorywhichissimultaneouslythestoryoftheprotagonist’s (thewriterArthurPhillips’) personalandprofessional coming of age. Thepapersetsouttoexplorethestrategiesthenovelistdeploystotackle topical issues of present-day humanities. These include institutionalizing of the canon; machinery of literary cult functioning; blending borders between the original and the copy/forgery in the age of electronic technologies;limits of autofiction, etc.ThetimelinessoftheseissuesguaranteesPhillips’ daringexperimentno small degree of interestbothinitsmatterandits form.
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