AN APOGEE OF CORPORIAL IN ACADEMIC NOVEL FLESH BY DAVID GALEF

Abstract

In the article the results of studying a problem of corporeal in a work of contemporary American writer David Galef, a professor of English at Montclair State University (New Jersey), are presented. Since Galef is little known in Ukraine, a short review of his life and works is given. On a basis of theoretical and literary critical works, devoted to a problem of corporeal in fiction, a representation of a body and corporeal is analyzed in a novel Flesh (1995). The key images and metaphors are defined. The important image is an overweight female body – Max’s object of desire. A story is narrated by his friend Don Shapiro, a professor of literature in “Ole Miss”. For a more precise interpretation, the functions of paratextual elements of original and translated texts are also studied. A novel is specified with its autobiographical character. According to a list of necessary features, this work is classified as an academic novel – a satirical comedy about university life with the elements of parody and erotic. In Galef’s novel there are many naturalistic and even pornographic descriptions. Satirically and ironically depicting an academic life, Galef creates a small copy of a contemporary world, in which people are very concentrated on matters of body and appearance, but not a soul and moral values.