The didactic potential of the genre of family chronicles in the mass literature of Great Britain of the XXI century

Abstract

The subject of the study is the British family chronicles created at the turn of the XX-XXI centuries by E. Howard, R. Pilcher, E. Rutherford, D. Lennox, G. Swift. These works are analyzed from the point of view of their didactic potential, which is understood here as the intention of translating ethical norms and values. This genre has become the pinnacle of the development of the English social novel. Its authors considered it their task to influence the reader in terms of educating a "moral sense" in him, assimilating ethical norms and understanding a distinct hierarchy of values. The classic of the genre was the "Saga of the Forsytes" by D. Galsworthy, which denied the norms of Victorian morality, and broadcast a new system of values and the idea of historical progress. The article examines the changes in the genre that appeared under the influence of the postmodern worldview. Comparative historical and typological methods of analysis are used to compare the genre dominants of family chronicles in the early twentieth century and their implementation at the turn of the twentieth and twenty first centuries. The novelty lies in the addition of ideas about the axiology of modern mass literature. At the end of the century, there was a revolution in public consciousness, which led to the fundamental destruction of any hierarchies in ethical terms and the denial of the very idea of a positive movement of history. The authors of modern family chronicles overcome the decentering of ethics. In most of the works they refer to the events of the Second World War. The very desire to recall these lessons of history and the unequivocal denial of the ideology of fascism is proof of the didactic potential of the novels in question. In addition, they create an idealized model of family life. The influence of the postmodern worldview is reflected in the non-linearity of artistic time, the fragmentation of depicted events, and the loss of the idea of historical progress. The analysis of the family chronicles of these authors allowed us to determine the formulas and stamps of the genre.