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TADBIRKORLIK VA PEDAGOGIKA. ILMIY-USLUBIY JURNAL. ISSN: 2181-2659. [1/2023].
IJTIMOIY FANLAR
Sodikova Bakhtigul
Doctoral student, Denau institute of entrepneurship and pedagogy
ORCID ID- 0009-0008-1553-9849
UDK: 8:1751:82-1
AN APPEARANCE OF SPECIFIC TYPE OF SELF-REFLEXIVE
METAFICTION IN MANTISSA’S WORK
Keywords:
self-
reflexive
metafiction,
extremis,
psychological
realities, novel-
characterization,
a mythological
figure
Annotation.
In this article of our research we analyse “Mantissa” a specific
type of self-reflexive metafiction. “Mantissa” can be read as a reflexive work
focusing on the art of writing, creativity, and how in extremis the real is
depicted. As such, it is firmly part of Fowles’s aesthetic, a formal exploration
of fiction’s apprehension of life, of the world, and of the inner self. Novel,
characterization can be said to have been conducted almost always around a
representational function, and characters in novel have conventionally been
aimed to represent the social, economic, and psychological realities of
individuals. The aim of this article is to examine the ways postmodern fiction
transgresses the conventions of novel-characterization and analyses of
characterization in John Fowles’ Mantissa to illustrate how postmodern fiction
explores certain postmodern concerns through its characters and thus sets a new
mode for characterization in novel.
ПОЯВЛЕНИЕ ОПРЕДЕЛЕННОГО ТИПА САМОРЕФЛЕКСИВНОЙ
МЕТАФИКЦИИ В РАБОТЕ МАНТИССА
Содикова Бахтигул
Докторант, Денауский институт предпринимательства и педагогики
ORCID ID- 0009-0008-1553-9849
Ключевые
слова:
саморефлексивная
метафикци,
крайность,
психологические
реалии, роман-
характеристика,
мифологический
персонаж.
Аннотация.
В данной статье нашего исследования мы анализируем
«Мантисса» как специфический тип саморефлексивной метафикции.
«Мантисса» может быть прочитана как рефлексивная работа,
посвященная искусству письма, творчеству и тому, как изображается
реальное в крайнем случае. Как таковая, она является прочной частью
эстетики Фаулза, формальным исследованием художественного
понимания жизни, мира и внутреннего. Можно сказать, что
характеристика
романа
почти
всегда
проводилась
вокруг
репрезентативной функции, а персонажи романа традиционно были
нацелены на представление социальных, экономических и
психологических реалий людей. Цель этой статьи состоит в том, чтобы
изучить, как постмодернистская художественная литература нарушает
условности романной характеристики и анализ характеристики в
Мантиссе
Джона
Фаулза,
чтобы
проиллюстрировать,
как
постмодернистская
художественная
литература
исследует
определенные постмодернистские проблемы через своих персонажей
и, таким образом, устанавливает новый способ характеристики в
романе.
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MANTISSA ASARIDAGI O'Z-O'ZINING REFLEKSIV METAFIKSIYANING
O'ZIGA XOS TURINING KO'RINISHI
Sodiqova Baxtigul
Denov tadbirkorlik va pedagogika instituti doktoranti
ORCID ID- 0009-0008-1553-9849
Kalit so'zlar:
o'z-
o'zini refleksli
metafiksi,
ekstremizm,
psixologik voqelik,
roman
xarakteristikasi,
mifologik figura.
Annotatsiya.
Tadqiqotimizning ushbu maqolasida biz "Mantissa" ni o'z-
o'zini refleksli metafiksning o'ziga xos turini tahlil qilamiz. "Mantissa" ni
yozish san'ati, ijodkorlik va ekstremalda haqiqiy qanday tasvirlanganiga
qaratilgan refleksli asar sifatida o'qish mumkin. Shunday qilib, u Faulz
estetikasining qat'iy bir qismidir, badiiy adabiyotining hayotni, dunyoni va
ichki o'zini anglashning rasmiy izlanishlari ko’rsatilgan. Aytish mumkinki,
romanni xarakterlash deyarli har doim tasviriy funktsiya atrofida amalga
oshirilgan va romandagi qahramonlar shartli ravishda shaxslarning ijtimoiy,
iqtisodiy va psixologik voqeliklarini aks ettirishga qaratilgan. Ushbu
maqolaning maqsadi postmodern fantastika roman xarakteristikasi
konventsiyalarini buzish yo'llarini va Jon Faulzning "Mantissa" dagi tavsif
tahlillarini o'rganishdan iborat bo'lib, postmodern fantastika o'z
qahramonlari orqali qandaydir postmodern tashvishlarni o'rganadi va shu
bilan romanda xarakterlashning yangi usulini ochib beradi.
Introduction
In postmodern fiction, character can be said to emdiv the postmodernist
conceptualization of self by subverting the notion of centered self mainly through
fluctuating between multiple names, identities, configurations, hence the selves.
Rejecting the coherence, consistency, and rationality that define anthropocentric
perception of self, postmodern character denies singularity and stability with regard to
its own being by liberally traversing different time periods, adopting different
identities, and roles. In relation to this, character in postmodern fiction proves to be
extremely fragmented, discontinuous, and fluctuating.
Published in 1982, John Fowles’ Mantissa, can be said to be one of the least
known novels of Fowles as far as its critical reception is concerned. Despite the scarce
and most often disapproving criticism, Mantissa is, in fact, “a highly suggestive work,
subject to a variety of plausible interpretations” (Haegert 175) and also one of Fowles’
most technically experimental novels. Mantissa, in its narrowest sense, tells the story
of an author, Miles Green, and his relationship with his muse, Erato, during the writing
process of a novel, which turns out to be Mantissa itself. Through the dialogues
between Miles Green and his muse, Erato, the novel explores such issues as the role of
inspiration in the construction of a literary text, the authorial ownership, and the nature
of literary production.
As regards characterization in Mantissa, it can be claimed that the way Fowles
implements characterization proves to be one of the most significant aspects of the
novel that contribute to its postmodern quality. The novel portrays only a few
characters: Miles Green, Erato, and her disguises, Nurse Cory and Dr. Delfie.
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Materials and methods
In this section, we can review the research methods we have conducted.
Scientists can interpret the observed feelings and observations in the process of reading
the work in different ways, for example, according to Ulug'bek Hamdam, this work has
philosophical feelings and can teach self-management methods. To begin with, the
most significant postmodern imprint in the characterization of Mantissa can be
observed in its employment of an author- character, Miles Green. In Mantissa, Fowles
brings the authorial voice into the novel by depicting the novel’s protagonist, Green,
as the author of Mantissa itself and creating the illusion that the novel is written during
the reader’s act of reading. Green denies the object and passive position which is
conventionally attributed to character. He is not only presented to be writing the text
he is within but he is also given the opportunity to comment upon the structure, form,
and content of the text he is part of.
Results and its discussion
The novel opens with Green waking up in a hospital room experiencing a kind
of memory loss. Even though neither Green nor the reader is aware of Green’s
authorship at the beginning of the novel, Green’s authorship is implied by Nurse Cory
when she measures time with page numbers:
‘How long have I been here?’
‘Just a few pages.’
‘Pages?’
She had folded her arms, and yet again there was the ghost of a quiz in her
watching eyes. ‘What should I have said?’
‘Days?’
She smiled more openly. ‘Good.’
‘Why did you say pages?’
‘You’ve mislaid your identity, Mr. Green. What I have to work on is your basic
sense of reality. And that seems in good shape” (M 19).
The association of the time with page numbers becomes the first indicator for
Green to become conscious of his presence in a book. Yet it is only in the end of the
first part that Green recognizes his status as the author. His muse, disguised as Nurse
Cory, takes a paper from the desk, claiming that it is Green’s story which he has just
written. As she starts to read those papers, the novel turns back to its beginning. This
analepsis points at the fact that Green’s act of writing starts the moment he wakes up
from his sleep in the assumedly hospital room.
Even though Green is presented as the author of Mantissa, the novel also puts
into question his authorship by exploring the function of inspiration in the construction
of a literary text by depicting muse as character. Dr. Delfie and Nurse Cory, who are
initially depicted as conducting a kind of sexuality-based treatment on Green, are
revealed to be different identities Green’s muse, Erato, adopts in the course of
narration. After Green comes to recognize his identity as author and Erato’s identity as
his muse, the couple starts to discuss over such issues as the nature of a literary text,
authorial ownership, and also the text they are part of. The sexuality between Green
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and his female muse, Erato, is eventually implied to be the symbolic representation of
the writing process which is jointly conducted by the author and the muse.
The idea that the author and his muse play an equal role in the production of a
literary text is reinforced when Green decides to end his relationship with Erato. When
Green attempts to leave the room, the door of the hospital room vanishes and the couple
is trapped inside the grey room. Considering that all of the incidents and dialogues
between Green and the muse symbolize the act of writing, itself, Green’s inability to
leave the room thus points at his inability of getting out of his own mind and also his
inability to complete the writing process without the aid of muse. Erato’s statement
that “you can’t walk out of your brain” (M 123) also confirms the fact that all of the
incidents presented in the novel in fact take place in Green’s own mind..
Green and Erato simultaneously become characters, authors as well as the first
readers of the same text, and thus fluctuate between subject and object positions.
Although they are introduced as characters in the beginning, they are transferred to the
authorial position in the course of the novel. Hence, Fowles’ characters can be regarded
as not essentially the author’s products; on the contrary, their existence is presented as
contextual, dependent on and limited to the covert and overt positioning and
repositioning of the other characters within the text.
Another postmodern imprint in Fowles’ characterization is observed in his
presentation of muse Erato- a mythological figure that symbolizes artistic inspiration -
as a character. Fowles’ borrowing a mythological figure and inserting it into his fiction
as a character thus serve to show that literary texts cannot be regarded as monolithic;
contrarily, their construction and meaning are always and inevitably related and linked
to other texts.
In addition to exemplifying transworld identity and reinforcing the intertextual
quality of the novel, Erato can also be explored in terms of her failing to fulfil the
representational function and emdiving postmodern perception of self, which is
fragmented, fluctuating, and decentred. One cannot indeed pinpoint a single certainty
with regards to Erato’s character for she displays an ontologically problematical status.
As the muse does not have an existence in the empirical sense, her ontological reality
is problematized and investigated throughout the novel by herself and Green. Green,
for instance, gets frequently and overly confused with regard to Erato’s ontology:
‘First you don’t exist. Then you’ve been endlessly screwed by other men. Come
on, make up your mind - which is it, for heaven’s sake?’
‘I am perfectly capable of making the kind of comparison I might have made,
had I existed as I actually am. If I was.’ ‘You can’t not exist and actually be. They’re
mutually contradictory” (M 89).
Even though both Green and Erato agree that she does have some kind of
existence, neither of them can exactly comprehend her unique ontology. Accordingly,
every time they attempt to define the nature of Erato’s existence, they find themselves
lost in paradoxes not being able to reach a logical conclusion. Yet, considering that
Green is writing a novel at the time and they are part of this book, they eventually come
to conclusion that Erato is merely a figment of Green’s imagination. When Green asks
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Erato “who the devil do you think you are?” (M 85), Erato confirms that she is merely
a creation of Green’s mind: “I don’t think, I know. I’m just one more miserable fantasy
figure your diseased mind is trying to conjure up out of nothing” (M 85).
Even though novel-characters are entirely fictional and do not have an empirical
existence, they still have a unique ontology in the fictional realm. Regarded as
particular individuals, characters are given human attributes and biographical
backgrounds and are also portrayed within a social, historical, and cultural
environment. Nevertheless, Erato’s problematical ontology firstly as a mythological
figure and secondly a figment of Green’s imagination renders her existence doubly
problematical as a postmodern character. Moreover, her lack of a distinct physicality
as the representative of artistic inspiration hinders her from having a stable external
appearance throughout the novel.
Fowles’ characterization in Mantissa significantly contests the representational
function of the novel-characterization observed in the earlier periods. The characters
in Fowles’ novel are not aimed to represent human beings, or their social and
psychological realities. Instead they are aimed to emdiv the postmodern view of
world where everything is discursive, textual and self is fluid and fragmented.
Mantissa’s narrative perspective expresses an extreme, solipsistic subjective
position, that of a depiction of the inside of the implied author’s brain, and represents
an examination of how one individual male perceives and constructs a fictional world,
one that becomes inextricably confused with the “real” world. The focus of the
narrative is the creation of a novel, or its “birth,” and the relationship between the male
implied author and his female muse, Erato, who also enters the frame of the narrative
precisely to confront the author about how she is depicted in his apparent novel (within
the overall, actual novel by Fowles).
Conclusion
Mantissa occupies an interesting position in Fowles’s literary output, as by the
time of its publication in 1982, he was by his own estimation, and by that of certain
literary critics, occupying an almost untenable position as an author. He remained a
stubborn bastion of realism and humanism in a literary world given over to
postmodernism, deconstruction, and third-wave feminism.
The novel is divided into four sections, each preceded by an epigram dealing
with either the relationship between men and women, or the division between mind
and div, thus focusing the reader on two of the central themes of the novel.
The novel is a playful account of the birth of a novel and the relationship between
the male novelist (Miles Green) and his female muse (Erato). There are parallels
between Mantissa and his previous novel, Daniel Martin, in that both take as their mise
en scene the creation of the novel with which the reader is currently occupied. Unlike
Daniel Martin, however, the implied author is not content to ignore the conventions of
contemporary theorists and quotidian standards and conventions and instead pursue his
own approach to realism.
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