ROUTINE VS. ROUTINIZATION IN A. BIERCE’S STORY «AN OCCURRENCE AT OWL CREEK BRIDGE»

Abstract

The article introduces a phenomenological approach to the analysis of A. Bierce’s story «An occurrence at Owl creek bridge». The category of routine is studied within the frames of Husserl’s interpretation of transcendental inter-subjectivity according to which «realized experience» is presented on two levels. The first is connected with a single flood of consciousness, and, to be more precise,with a possible perception of a single ego-subject. In the story it is Peyton Farquhar. The second represents the constructed unity of a higher level and is a multitude of subjects which are in a state of agreement and mutual understanding. These are soldiers and officers of the Unionist Army, who are involved into the procedure of a hanging which acquires the status of a ritualized routine, daily occurrence. Bierce’s approach to routinization of death is explicitly ironic. Irony is applied on both stylistic and linguistic levels. On linguistic level it is used as traditional incompatibility between what is said and what is meant. On stylistic one– it accentuates the contrast between textual reality and its possible perception by reading audience. This contrast is also revealed through the opposition of two temporal layers – physical and psychological. The first has system forming narrative function, and the latter – system differentiating one. These two levels have a cross-section – internal existential perception of time and space by the person condemned to the execution and his temporal victory over death. At the same time the narrative mechanism of probing deep into the main character’s state of mind is being analysed. This mechanism helps the writer to express implicitly his real attitude to this «occurrence», which reflected paradoxality of civil conflict. On the one hand, it is an attempt to routinize the execution of enemies, on the other, – futile desire to return to the routine.