THE PROBLEM OF CREATING AN ORIGINAL WORK IN H. MELVILLE’S NOVEL PIERRE: OR, THE AMBIGUITIES

Abstract

The article discusses specifics of the problem of creating an original work in H. Melville’s novel Pierre, or The Ambiguities (1852). The author gives a brief overview of the reception of the novel, focusing on the concept of the “writer’s failure”. The paper analyses one of Melville’s key motifs and the problem of interpretation of “originality”, which allows one to define the scope of further Russian studies of the poetics and problematics of the work that are still absent. The objective of the article is to research the image of the artist, the motif of the creation of a mystical book, to highlight and describe the main points of Melville’s philosophy of creativity, which was reflected in his fiction of the 1850s. The analysis allows speaking of the novel as a metafiction, as well as to note its genre peculiarities within the tradition of Künstlerroman.