The article attempts to consider the specifics of the English version of postmodernism on the example of Barry Unsworth’s novel “Morality Play”, published in 1995, and for the first time in Russian was published in 2005. This is a good example of a fruitful combination of two updated genres: new historical fiction and metaphysical detective. Such syncretism is explained by the specifics of English postmodernism itself, a distinctive feature of which is a close connection with the literary tradition, an antimodernist orientation combined with comedic and satirical content. The modern English novel is characterized by a mixture of genres, fiction and reality and the prevailing critical deconstruction. Based on M.М. Bakhtin’s research, it can be argued that according to the laws of “carnivalization”, everything familiar changes, through denial, the world is renewed. The narrative is based on Barry Unsworth’s version, or rather a reinterpretation of how the transition from religious to secular drama took place in medieval times.
For citation:
Sadovnikova Y.M. Barry Unsworth’s “Morality Play”: features of the structure of English postmodernism, Ivanovo State University Bulletin, Series: Humani-ties, 2022, iss. 3, pp. 39—47.