NARRATIVE DIFFUSION IN THE PROSE BY WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS

Abstract

The present article examines the narrative models in short stories by William Carlos Williams, a prominent American modernist poet and physician, whose prose legacy has been left out of literary critics’ attention up to the present. The aim of the article is to an alyze the narrative features of literary works by the physician writer. The material of the research is «The Doctor Stories» collection of short fiction written between 1932 and 1962. The study relies on the methods of narratological analysis, reception theory and hermeneutics. The material under consideration provides an efficient incorporation the author’s experience as a medical practitioner and its artistic rethinking. «The Doctor Stories» reveal a unique outlook of the author who was able to observe people in the most complicated and intimate situatons of their lives — in the moments of suffering, hopelessness, grief, loss and death. In Williams’ short fiction, the efficacy of treatment depends on the patient’s communicative readiness for cooperation with the narrator, whereas the disclosure of the profound intentionality of a literary work requires the reader’s receptive readiness for engaging in a joint creative process with the author. Each short story is presented through the prism of homodiegetic narration: a fictional doctor gives an account of his encounters with patients, and shares his thoughts and feelings about each particular medical case. The dominant feature of Williams’s prose work is the technique of narrative diffusion, which impels the reader to engage in the receptive process as an active participant and equal partner. The doctor’s and patient’s narratives are deliberately given in a continuous flow of story without any syntactical borders in order to erase the boundaries between the narrative «I» and the receptive «You». In such a manner, the reader is required to apply a considerable amount of interpretative abilities, and thus to assume a part of receptive responsibility. The prospects for further research are in the study of literary and medical discourse by the US physician writers, which enables us to deepen the understanding of the American national literature and its historical and cultural context.