MYTHOLOGICAL IMAGES AND PLOTS IN NEIL GAIMAN’S CREATIVE RECEPTION HAYMAN (BOOK “SCANDINAVIAN MYTHOLOGY”)

Abstract

The article examines the role and influence of Scandinavian mythology on the creative work of the popular English writer Neil Gaiman, analyzes his book “Scandinavian Mythology”, highlights the artistic techniques and means that the writer uses to transform or comprehend the sense of mythological images and plots, giving them an author’s identity. He “transforms” classic mythological characters into interesting literary heroes, while preserving the main essence of their characters and relationships. In the book, N. Gaiman uses fiction and myth as one of the methods of modeling a literary text, raising the issue of human nature, divine, and mythological. It is noted that the author uses the playful principle of intertextuality to complicate the structure of the fiction, directly or indirectly quoting original sources. Attention is paid to the saturation of the author’s version of the myths with their own names. The writer explains names that are difficult to spell and pronounce in the dictionary provided at the end of the book. Neil Gaiman, imitating the plots of the Eddic myths, does not change their plots significantly, and does not fill the images with new meaning. However, he gives the myths a logical sequence, emphasizes cause-and-effect relationships, and uses contemporary vocabulary to describe the character’s emotions (which can be perceived as a manifestation of the author’s humour). It is stated that the style of the work allows us to consider the book “Scandinavian Mythology” as the author is retelling the plots of myths that exist in different variants. Considering that already in the 13th century myths had largely lost their connection with the ritual and were perceived as a work of art, so their modernization by the writer can be considered as a kind of remake, in which you should not look for traces of pre-Christian cults. It is stated that N. Geiman in his book reproduces traditional ideas about the gods in detail, using the postmodern principle of citation, which complicates the structure of the work significantly but does not destroy the artistic integrity.