GENRE DOMINANTS IN THE DIARY OF AN ARCTIC ADVENTURE “DANGEROUS WORK” BY ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

Abstract

The article attempts to investigate the genre specificity of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Diary of an Arctic Adventure, Dangerous Work, which belongs to the early period of the artist’s career and captures his impressions of a journey through the Arctic and his work on the whaling ship Hope. The diary consists of two notebooks covering the period from February 28 to August 11, 1880, and includes seventeen ink drawings. In the Diary of an Arctic Adventure, both traditional features of the genre (regularity and dating of entries, fragmentation, factuality, subjectivity, etc.) and features shaped by the narrator’s perspective, his worldview, the influence of a new environment, and extreme experiences are revealed. The purpose of the research is to establish the genre dominants of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Diary of an Arctic Adventure. The task is to characterize the peculiarities of the narrative and the image of the narrator, as well as to describe and systematize the genre properties of the diary. Methods. In the article, we used the structural-functional method to analyze the genre of the diary and the narratological method to study the features of the narrative and the creation of the narrator’s image. The biographical method was also employed to determine how the author represents the memory of the events he experienced. Results. In the article, we revealed the genre dominants of the Diary of an Arctic Adventure, such as the regularity of entries with the mandatory indication of the day, date, and month; descriptions of visited cities and places; descriptions of favorite activities and entertainment on the ship (reading books, sparring, discussions with the captain and other crew members on various topics, singing sailor songs, etc.); descriptions of the customs and traditions of whalers; concise and vivid sketches of northern landscapes; continuous intertextual references from reading books and reflections on their content; notes dedicated to the author’s creative plans; portrait sketches of the crew; descriptions and interpretations of dreams; reflections on the danger and brutality of the work performed; descriptions of situations related to the doctor’s duties; and the verbal documentation of the recording process itself, which is one of the defining features of the genre. The writer often uses humor, ensuring that the entries, despite their dominant informativeness and documentation, are not perceived as a “dry” list of facts and events. Conclusions. Therefore, the analysis of the genre specificity of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Diary of an Arctic Adventure, Dangerous Work, leads to the conclusion that the work reflects the author’s contemporary worldview, along with gradual changes and growth associated with his acquisition of new experiences. The narrator demonstrates observation, interest in the unknown, and a desire to record the most important events in the life of the crew and the peculiarities of their joint work. That is why, in the diary, the traditional narrative vector shifts from the internal to the external. The entries are characterized by informativeness, brevity, moderate emotionality, and vivid details from the life of whalers. The place where the events occurred, the time, and the circumstances of the work performed determine the content of the notes.