On the poetics of mass literature (Alexander Bushkov’s dilogy A Knight from Nowhere and Flying Islands)

Abstract

Mass literature can be analyzed not only as sociological material or as a background for first tier literature, but also as an independent phenomenon of the aesthetic sphere. Authors of commercially successful literature create more complex texts than their less successful competitors. However, the complexity of the structure of mass works lies not in the philosophical premise, not in the motive system and other aspects of the text that are important for classical literature, but in how specific techniques aimed at keeping the reader’s attention at every moment of time become more complex. In the article, the dilogy of Alexander Bushkov is analyzed from the point of view of language, the structure of the fantastic world, from the point of view of the ways of forming relationships between the depicted world and external reality, between the main character and the reader, as well as from the point of view of the plot and some popular compositional structures. Particular attention is paid to how the illusion of “autonomy” of the depicted world is created. The proposed analysis reveals that Bushkov in his novels not only reproduces features that are generally characteristic of the so-called heroic fantasy. He finds ways to complicate traditional techniques. Thus, it is demonstrated that successful mass authors have enough freedom within the framework of the genre canon. This could not have been detected using the typological approach, which is widespread in modern literary criticism.