THE POETICS OF L.-F. CELINE’S NOVEL «THE TRAVEL TO THE EDGE OF THE DARKNESS» AND THE USE OF THE EXPRESSIONIST DEVICES IN THE ROMANCE TO DESCRIBE THE TOTAL NEGATIVISM OF THE WAR EVENTS

Abstract

The article examines the style of Louis-Ferdinand Celine in the novel «The travel to the edge of the darkness». The novel is analyzed through the lens of expressionism, a movement that emerged prominently in anti-war literature during World War I. Various interpretations of the work are considered, while the key expressionist features in both its content and form – at the levels of central ideas and artistic devices – are highlighted. In particular, the anti-war themes are emphasized. The novel abounds in the absurd, a stifled cry, the motif of doomed humanity, the futility of life, pain, fire, and death. Its heightened emotional intensity is conveyed through increased anxiety, fear, hopelessness, nervous tension, and suffering. The fragmented plot structure and the recurring image of fire-common in many expressionist depictions of war-symbolize death, agony, hell, torment, blood, and anguish. This nervous strain, leading to a distortion of reality, serves to amplify expressionist emotions and to render the horrors of war more vividly. The work is rich in irony, self-irony, and grotesque elements, emphasizing the absurdity of the world and of human existence. The impulse of a desperate cry prevails, while the expressionist themes of loneliness and human hopelessness are clearly articulated. The style of L.-F. Celine’s novel «The travel to the edge of the darkness» is analyzed in relation to the events of the First World War. The study shows that in French literature, as well as in other European literatures, it was war that became the most effective incentive for creativity in the expressionist style. Analysis of the novel’s stylistics gives reason to assert that the expressionist style is synonymous with the «the poetics of fire». The subordination to the expressionist worldview emphasizes apocalyptic moments of the perception, the fiery symbolism becomes dominant and gradually affects other means of the depiction.