Novikova V.G. —
The genre of "biographies through the prism of everyday life" in modern English literature (based on the works of Lucy Worsley)
// Litera. – 2024. – ¹ 12.
– P. 124 - 134.
DOI: 10.25136/2409-8698.2024.12.72823
URL: https://en.e-notabene.ru/fil/article_72823.html
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Abstract: The subject of the research is the genre specifics of documentary and artistic biographies, which include materials from everyday life studies of the depicted era. The research material was books by an L. Worsley “Jane Austen at home”, “If walls could talk”, “A Very British Murder” published in the 2010s. These works are examined from the point of view of the embodiment in them of the traditional dominant genre of literary biographies and the features of the emerging variant. Biographical, comparative historical, and cognitive analysis methods are used to clarify the specifics of this genre transformation. The research is relevant because it belongs to one of the most important areas in modern interdisciplinary knowledge – the study of the category "everyday life". The novelty lies in the fact that for the first time the works of the English writer Lucy Worsley are being studied, and the proposed name of a new genre form is introduced. The main conclusion of the study is the detection of a special genre form of biography in the work of Lucy Worsley, a professional historian, author of journalism, nonfiction, creator of television series about the everyday life, and customs of the British who lived in various historical periods. Its name is suggested by the publisher's successful subtitle: "biography through the prism of everyday life." The traditional biography is based on documents, it is built as a biography, it includes everyday details in order to create a "reality effect". The new form is full of detail, strung together in semantic series of details, which together are designed to show historical reality and prove its authenticity to the reader.