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Abstract: The article deals with the interpretation originality of the character of Alcestis and the plot of the Euripides’ drama in the last same-name and unfinished literary work of the East German writer Franz Fühmann, which was unpublished during his life. This originality is especially salient on the background of the comparative-historical analysis of these works of art from the point of view of the realization of the mythological image of the character and its functions in the system of the characters of the play and the transformation of the plot of the ancient drama. The novelty of the study is determined by the fact that the materials of the preparatory work and the literary work itself have not been translated and examined in Russian German studies. While investigating the interpretation of the plot about Alcestis, biographical and historical-genetic approaches have turned out to be productive as theoretical tools because they allow identifying the prime causes of the literary phenomena and the profound mythology of Fühmann’s creative activity. The essential roots of the plots and conflicts of most of his works should be sought primarily in his own life, which the writer considers not only as the existence of an individual, but also as a phenomenon representative of a certain epoch. In this case, the myth kind of personifies reality by representing the current political moments as well-known mythological characters and events. This serves an essential psychological function separating viewers/readers from “everyone else”, “the rest” and contributes to one’s own inclusion in what the myth reflects, to the identification of oneself as one of its characters or, on the contrary, to the dissimilation with others. The suggestive power is based on this idea; it mobilizes and integrates the functions of social, national, and political myths and penetrates into the unconscious, which is shown both by investigations and artistic practices of Fühmann. The tendency of the writer to psychologize the space of the myth and its motifs and images, reproducing and “acting out”, from his point of view, psychological metaphors, discovering deep personal and social structures and motivating the causes of change or stability of the foundations of the being, has been reflected in the dramatic experiences of his later creative period.

About the author(s) :

Tatiana A. Sharypina

National Research Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod

(Nizhny Novgorod, Russia)

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8585-8983

 

A c k n o w l e d g m e n t s : This work was carried out at the Research Laboratory “Study of National and Cultural Codes of World Literature in the Context of Intercultural Communication” of National Research Lobachevsky State University within the framework of the Strategic Academic Leadership Programme “Priority 2030” (project N-457-99_2022-2023).

Publication Timeline:

Date of receipt: 23.04.2023; date of publication: 31.10.2023.

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