The Bildungsroman “Waterland”: Graham Swift as a follower of Charles Dickens
Varyoshin Nikita Vladimirovich
Moscow State Linguistic University
Submitted: 04.07.2023
Abstract. The study aims to reveal how the theme of Tom Crick’s upbringing is objectified in G. Swift’s novel “Waterland” in comparison with the upbringing of “a real gentleman” Philip Pirrip, the narrator in the novel “Great Expectations”. Considerable attention is paid to how unfulfilled expectations affect the lives of the characters of G. Swift and Ch. Dickens and how “great expectations” correlate with curiosity, the main trait of human nature. Quoting Swift’s researchers, the author of the paper describes the following typology of curiosity about the world and the past: investigative, sexual and historical. The scientific originality of the study lies in the formulation of the correlative pair “curiosity/upbringing” forming the plot conflict of the work “Waterland”, which is being examined as a Bildungsroman. As a result, the researcher puts forward the thesis that it is the human curiosity that is the objectification of the theme of the protagonist’s upbringing in G. Swift’s novel. The events in Tom Crick’s life are formed as a result of the character’s investigative and sexual curiosity, while historical curiosity is displayed by the professional historian Crick when he tries to identify the causes of the tragedy from his past.
Key words and phrases: Г. Свифт, Ч. Диккенс, роман воспитания, историческое любопытство, типология любопытства, сюжетный конфликт произведения, G. Swift, Ch. Dickens, Bildungsroman, historical curiosity, typology of curiosity, plot conflict of the work
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