Transformation of the traditional plot in the novel “Tristan 1946” by M. Kuncewiczowa

Abstract

The article presents systematic and holistic analysis of the novel “Tristan 1946” by the Polish writer Maria Kuncewiczowa, where the traditional Tristan plot is transformed in an original way. In this regard, the origins of the story about Tristan and Isolde and the history of its artistic interpretation in world culture are considered. Special attention is paid to the structure and core of the Tristan plot, the meaning of oppositions associated with the images of the forest and the sea, denouement and conclusion. It is proved that 1) Kuncewiczowa’s novel gives grounds for considering it from the perspective of gender literature and “women’s writing”; 2) the artistic world of the novel is conceptualized as overcoming a given archetypal matrix; 3) the finale of the novel changes the themes and problems of the Tristan plot: modern Tristan and Isolde, each of them realizing the American dream in their own way, unwittingly discredits the high pathos and apology of love of the medieval novel; 4) the text of the novel, focused on the substrate of Tristan history, carries out a cultural transfer and demonstrates the possibility of the ancient legend existence in new circumstances: socio-cultural, political, philosophical, ethical, aesthetic, national. It is concluded that the intertextuality of the novel has increased the semantic valence of the traditional plot and amended its codification based on new epistemological, aesthetic and axiological, ideological and worldview principles.