Mythological symbolism in D. Lessing`s dilogy «Mara and Dann»

  • Наталія Юріївна Проскуріна V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University (Svobody Sq., 4, Kharkiv, 61022, Ukraine) http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9265-6618
  • Олена Миколаївна Кравець V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University (4, Svobody Sq., Kharkiv, 61022, Ukraine) http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7428-8535
Keywords: Doris Lessing, dilogy, novel, color symbolism, mythological images, mythological symbolism, neomythogism, Doris Lessing, dilogy, novel, color symbolism, mythological images, mythological symbolism, neomythologism

Abstract

The article discovers the dilogy, written by one of the most famous feminist writers of the 20-21th centuries. The D. Lessing`s novels «Mara and Dann» (1999), «The Story of General Dann, Mara's Daughter, Griot and Snow Dog» (2005) stand out of writer's artistic world. The fantastic nature of the novels is emphasized. The antiutopia action is postponed to the distant future. The novels reveal the peculiarities of mankind`s life after an unknown catastrophe on the continent of Africa. As a result of radical changes, the society became degraded. The evolution level was reduced so far that humankind in comparison with modern generation had fallen behind in development for centuries and even millennia. Due to lack of sacral knowledge about the world humanity had to go through another crisis. The question whether to choose a new way of development or to restore almost lost knowledge of ancestors is arised. The art world of dilody reveals the presence of the mythological context. The space and attributes of the novels are saturated with a sacred content. The purpose of the article is to study the functioning of mythological symbols in the given texts. In particular, the key areas are the color study of the "world of things". The particular important role of colour binnary opposition is described. Among the colour opposition there are such pairs as black-red, white-red, yellow-blue, which represent the contrast between the life/living and death/dead, the North and South and so on. The article also studies the space of dilogy, the solar mythosymbolics. The thesis put an emphasis on the study of the water symbolism. The article investigates the interconnection between the color gamma and the initiation complex.

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Author Biographies

Наталія Юріївна Проскуріна, V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University (Svobody Sq., 4, Kharkiv, 61022, Ukraine)

Laboratory of the Department of History of Foreign Literature and Classical Philology

Олена Миколаївна Кравець, V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University (4, Svobody Sq., Kharkiv, 61022, Ukraine)

PhD in Philology, Associate Professor of History of Foreign Literature and Classical Philology Department

References

Література

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Published
2019-05-22
How to Cite
Проскуріна, Н. Ю., & Кравець, О. М. (2019). Mythological symbolism in D. Lessing`s dilogy «Mara and Dann». The Journal of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University. Series “Philology”, (79), 51-55. https://doi.org/10.26565/2227-1864-2018-79-08
Section
The problem of studying of a work of fiction