U suvremenoj se književnosti često govori o „povratku priči“. Modernizam se u
književnosti gradi svoju poetiku uvelike na suprotstavljanju realističkoj priči. Razaranje priče
međutim u krajnjoj konzekvenciji vodi do nemogućnosti pripovijedanja, „bijele stranice“, pa
se postmodernizam vraća priči. No ta se priča bitno razlikuje od one realističke, koju
pripovjedno obilježava njezina sigurnost. Sigurna priča je sigurna u sebe, nema potrebu
propitivati se te stvara dojam kao da se pripovijeda sama od sebe, a odgovara Aristoteovom
shvaćanju pojma priče kao cjelovite i svrsishodne radnje koja ima početak, sredinu i kraj.
Obrazac takve priče može se naći u realističkim romanima, poput Flaubertove Gospođe
Bovary i Tolstojeve Ane Karenjine, ali i u historiografijama i biografijama. Postmodernizam
je suvremeni fenomen o kojem se mnogo piše i govori, ali ne postoji konsenzus o tome kako
ga zapravo definirati. Linda Hutcheon predlaže fluidni sustav poetike postmodernizma koju
bitno obilježava njegova kontradiktornost. Na tragu takve poetike ovaj rad pokušava opisati
dva postmodernistička pripovjedna teksta, Flaubertovu papigu J. Barnesa i Zaposjedanje A.
S. Byatt. Na temelju naratologije, koja se povremeno proširuje elementima hermeneutike i
semiotike, pomna analiza Flaubertove papige i Zaposjedanja pokušava pokazati kako se
provodi pripovjedna destabilizacija priče. Oba djela naime pripovijedaju složene priče, koje se
ipak bitno razlikuju od sigurne priče realizma, ali ipak uspijevaju biti priče. U pripovjednom
stvaranju nesigurne priče sudjeluju kako pripovjedni postupci unutar samog teksta tako i
mjesto djela u žanrovskom sustavu i njegovi intertekstualni odnosi. I Flaubetova papiga i
Zaposjedanje stvaraju iznimno složene intertekstualne odnose kako s romanima realizma i
djelima književne tradicije, tako i sa suvremenim tekstovima fikcionalne i nefikcionalne
proze. Tako složeni intertekstualni odnosi znače i nemogućnost točnog postavljanja tih djela u
tradicionalne žanrove, pa se i njihova žanrovska pripadnost može opisati kao nesigurna. Kako
ključnu ulogu u stvaranju pripovjednog svijeta ima pripovjedač, analiza pokazuje kako upravo
uloga pripovjedača i fokalizatora bitno pridonosi nesigurnosti priče, baš kao i odnosi među
pripovjednim razinama, koji stvaraju mise en abyme, onemogućujući izdvajanje jedne priče
kao prve, najvažnije i originalne. Poigravanje odnosima fikcionalnog i stvarnog te uvođenje
elemenata znanstvenog i poetskog diskursa pokazuje se kao daljnji element u stvaranju
nesigurne priče. Pomna narativna analiza Flaubertove papige i Zaposjedanja dokazuje kako
gotovo svi elementi teksta sudjeluju u stvaranju nesigurne priče, novog pojma kojeg
uvodimo, a koji se izdvaja kao bitno obilježje postmodernističkih pripovjednih tekstova.This work attempts to establish new term of uncertain story as a key aspect of
postmodernist narrative by analysing two postmodernist novels: Flaubert’s Parrot by Julian
Barnes and Possession by Antonia Susan Byatt. The analysis is based on narratology,
intertextuality and hermeneutics.
Story is a term that has always been connected with literature in general, in everyday
speech as well as in critical discourse. In the contemporary fiction it is possible to witness a
certain “return to the story”, which is connected to postmodernism. But the postmodernist
story differs from the traditional one by its uncertainty. Although much is said and written
about postmodernism, there are many controversies regarding its definition. According to
Linda Hutcheon, all definitions of postmodernism (Lyotard, Callinescu, McHale, Lodge) fail
to recognize its central paradox: it both uses and problematizes concepts it deals with.
Therefore Hutcheon argues for a complex and flowing “poetics of postmodernism”, not its
definition.
Critical discussion about the concept of story starts with Aristotle, who established the
connection with tragedy and saw it as a complete and meaningful action which has the
begging, the middle and the end. That notion of story remained valid until the 20th century
Russian formalism, structuralism and poststructuralism, which developed the notion of
narrative as opposed to the story or the plot. Aristotle’s notion, however, remains the basis for
our term certain story, which can be found in realistic novels. It is a story that makes an
illusion of narrating itself: the narrator is usually “hidden” to put the story in the foreground,
which is itself concentrated on its content, not its form. That kind of story is prevalent during
literary history and has not been seriously challenged until the rise of modernism, which has
in turn introduced two new aspects. The first aspect forms a modern story, a story that differs
from the certain one, but still remains a story. The other aspect destroys the story altogether in
the stream of consciousness narrative mode and the French New novel. A complete
destruction of the story leads to the impossibility of narration, to silence. Postmodernism
therefore returns to the concept of narrating stories, but those stories are uncertain. Their
uncertainty is not based on their connection to the reality, but on multiplicity of narrative
devices that continually question the story itself. However, it must be emphasised that an
uncertain story always remains a story, which implies the narration of events. Flaubert’s parrot narrates three different stories: the most important one is the search
for the truth about Flaubert, while the other two focus on the narrator Braithwaite and his wife
Ellen. Although Braithwaite tells a story about Flaubert, Flaubert’s parrot is anything but a
traditional biography. It is not possible to define it within the conventiontional genre system
because it not only fuses fictional narration with critical discourse but combines various
narration strategies of novel and biography and forms an uncertain genre. It continually
undermines every presupposition of realistic and biographical narration to form a narrative
which constantly questions itself: not only a first person narrator tells a story that is
traditionally bound to a third person omniscient narrator, but he demonstrates his very limited
knowledge of the story he narrates. That leads to a narrative paradox: Braithwaite is an
unreliable narrator, but his repeated acknowledgement of the limitations of his knowledge
makes him a reliable source of the uncertain narration. His version of Flaubert’s life is
contrasted to Louise Colet version, which represents a complicated mise en abyme of the three
stories on the first diegetic level. Coupled with various “ontological scandals” (McHale),
mise en abyme further destabilizes the story. The parrot itself functions both as a real stuffed
parrot and a fluctuating symbol. The impossibility of identifying the parrot sitting on
Flaubert’s desk indicates the impossibility of finding the one true meaning of a text.
Byatt’s Possession narrates two main stories on two different diegetic levels, but it
also incorporates a myriad of intradiegetic stories which form multiple mirror texts that reflect
one another. It is therefore impossible to decide which story is the most important one, so the
mere concept of a story is destabilized. The uncertainty of the story is enhanced by the
complex role of the most important intertextual relations (Grimm’s fairy-tales, French
Melusine legend, Fowles’s French Lieutenant’s Woman) and of the romance tradition, which
leads to Possession as a metaromance. Further destabilization of the story is achieved by
forming complex relations between the main narrator on the first level of diegesis and many
first person narrators. The motifs of the tower, the hair, colours green and white, water,
garden and possession are intertwined and can be found throughout the narrative; they form a
system of leitmotifs. Since the use of motifs is characteristic of poetic genres and not of a
narrative of any kind, the introduction of a poetic structure in a story makes it uncertain.
Uncertain story is a story that keeps the essence of being a story, but it questions itself
through many narrative strategies: the use of narrator, relations between narrative levels,
intertextuality, metafiction and the use of poetic structures. That kind of story is the key
characteristic of postmodernist literature
