MYTHICAL RESTRUCTURING IN MICHEL TOURNIER’S NOVEL«THE ERL-KING»

The article is devoted to the mythical restructuring in Michel Tournier’s novel “The Erl-King”. The movement of the plot is based on the internal development of the idea of “Phoria” - the act of “bearing”. The essay investigates various aspects of the “phoria”, transformation and inversion of the traditional myth as the main poetic principles in Tournier’s fiction. Considerable attention is paid to photography appearing both as the way of mythologizing of an object and as the consuming of the model. The article presents an analysis of the relation between denotation and connotation in the main symbols and signs in the novel. Basic motives of the writer are represented by auto-intertextual discourse.

The Erl-King, ogre, mythical restructuring, intertextuality, Phoria, binary oppositions, photography, inversion, gemini (twins), androgyny, sign, aestheticization of political, theatricality