Отражение событий Холодной войны в романе Э. Л. Доктороу «Книга Даниила»

Филология и культура. 2016. Т. 4. № 46. С. 274–279.

Chernetsova E. V.

The article concerns the novel by E. L. Doctorow “The Book of Daniel” which transforms a well-known in the USA case of conviction and execution of Ethel and Julius Rosenbergs, accused of conspiracy in the 1950-s. It represents a peculiar interpretation of history. The book doesn’t mention these people, but family of Isaacsons – American communists Rochelle and Paul, their children Daniel and Susan are a clear allusion to Rosenbergs. Thus document as a basis of the book functions differently from what we can see in traditional works where fiction is combined with non-fiction. Doctorow reproduces important events of the Cold War comprehended by the fictional main character and narrator Daniel. He creates his own myth of the family depicted, their principles, social and political background of the event. This is achieved by special type of narrative technique provided with the image of the main character. As a result we can see so called pastiche, a game of a story-teller, a character, an author, a character and narrator of another book and a reader. It is a significant fact that these are constituents typical for postmodern prose. Moreover by means of combining documentary and fictional characters Doctorow interprets his vision of history and presents his attitude to social role of art and writing

Keywords: novel, роман, миф, myth, document, документальность, interpretation of history, интерпретация истории