PECULIARITIES OF ARTISTIC REALITY IN THE YULI ZEH’S NOVEL ‘GAMING INSTINCT’

Abstract

This article substantiates the relevance of the poststructuralist method, which offers a flexible approach to the concepts of “experiment” and “fictionality,” thereby opening new possibilities for analyzing “experimentalism” in literature. A distinct example in this regard is Juli Zeh’s novel The Gaming Instinct, whose experimental nature is expressed both at the plot level and through its framed composition – where events unfold within the structure of a legal case reconstruction, narrated by a criminal court judge. The study explores the application of the classical game theory model within the postmodern literary paradigm. Using a poststructuralist reading strategy, the analysis shows that the presented picture of the world is not related in content to the game model; rather, it is variable and shifting. This interpretative approach allows for the emergence of new forms of knowledge through literature, by altering evaluative frameworks and interpretive vectors. The article describes the structure of the literary reality, its internal potential and contradictions – the elements that define it as a form of contemporary experience, capable of being both described and communicated. The research demonstrates that various configurations of “game” within the novel can only be partially captured using the tools of classical game theory. This is because the ontological theory of the text challenges the rationality through the “irrational” behavior of its characters. The aesthetic world represented in the novel is perceived as the outcome of a complete artistic expression, rather than as a model bound by a stable theoretical framework. The work not only displays familiar traits of postmodern literature, reflecting the prevailing understanding of the human condition and world perception, but also offers a contemporary experience of time, functioning as a medium of distance and critical reflection on postmodernism itself. The article traces a theoretical trajectory from game theory, through the “prisoner’s dilemma” model, and into its literary interpretation within the novel, expanded further by behavioral dimensions. It is shown that the protagonist’s “prisoner’s dilemma” does not conform to the classical understanding of it, but instead represents an individually and artistically transformed version of the theoretical game model.