Literary Aesthetics of Postmodernism (based on the novel by A. Zhaksylykov “Singing Stones”)

Abstract

The aesthetics of postmodernism is based on a number of distinctive features, such as the phenomenon of play, attraction to entropy, intertextuality, a special type of cooperation with the reader and many others. This article provides a descriptive diachronic analysis of the formation of postmodern theory, which denies the philosophy of integrity and predetermination. The horizon of reader expectations is blurred due to the hybridization of genre structures, pastiche and many other targeted techniques. The purpose of the study is to show the inlay of such elements into the fabric of A. Zhaksylykov’s work “Singing Stones”. The authors talk about inlays not by chance: Kazakh postmodernism, bypassing the stage of modernism itself, managed to preserve the authentic features of Kazakh literature, in particular, in the works of Kazakh authors the mythogenicity was practically not destroyed. However, certain elements gravitate toward a new aesthetic. In particular, as our research has shown, this affects the type of literary hero. The results of the analysis showed that this is a constructed image of a socio-psychological mask and at the same time an ethnogenetic code of the soul. This interpretation is extremely important for the entire novel cycle, which gravitates towards the meta-novel genre. Thus, as the results of the study showed, the main character of the novel “The Singing Stones” Jean, whose name becomes a code “key” to understanding the essence of the transformations occurring with the hero, is a bioreconstructive mask of a hero of a higher narrative level - the Journalist. The journalist has just yet to set off on a spiritual journey, which will be associated with significant physical, mental and spiritual tests for him, however, he has already realized some of the decisions laid down as desirable ones at the level of writing his own creative work - the first novel “Singing Stones”. In this regard, the hero of the meta-novel of post-modernist discourse appears before the reader primarily as a creative subject who transforms the world with his own will.

Key words: postmodernism, type of hero, newest Kazakh literature, elements, discourse.