GENRE DIFFUSION IN IAN MCEWAN’S NOVEL SWEET TOOTH

Abstract

The creative evolution of the prominent British novelist Ian McEwan demonstrates a consistent and organic transition from the dark physiological focus and shock value of his early “macabre” period to a highly refined intellectual, psychological, and deeply metatextual prose style. The novel Sweet Tooth (2012) became a natural culmination of this long-term development. In it, the author masterfully synthesizes his long-standing interest in the intricacies of the human psyche with subtle autobiographical reflection and postmodern narrative play, ultimately blurring the rigid boundaries between artistic fiction, grand history, and private memoir. The purpose of the study is to investigate the mechanisms, artistic forms, and functions of genre syncretism in contemporary British metafiction based on the analysis of the book «Sweet Tooth» (2012). The study is aimed at revealing the author’s cognitive-narrative strategies and clarifying the specifics of deconstructing canonical narrative models. Research methodology. The study employs an integrated methodological approach combining the tools of genological analysis (to study the interpenetration of genre systems), narrative method (to explicate focalization and the structure of narrative agencies), feminist criticism (to interpret gender performativity), as well as historical-literary and biographical methods. Results. It is proved that the analyzed work is a complex polygenre structure integrating elements of a conspiracy thriller, a classical model of personal development (Bildungsroman), memoir-autobiographical prose, and metatext. It is substantiated that the use of a «quasi-female» narrative is a form of intellectual mystification transforming the patriarchal canons of spy literature. The role of the historical and political background of Great Britain in the 1970s as a dynamic plot factor and a mirror metaphor for artistic creation is clarified. The metatextual role of embedded novellas (the mise en abyme technique) is revealed, serving as a space for theoretical discussions on the nature of realism, the relation between fact and fiction, and the limits of authorial dictate. Conclusions. Genre diffusion in the work plays an integrating role, harmoniously combining an exciting narrative intrigue with philosophical reflections on the nature of writing, the relativity of historical truth, and the ethical responsibility of the creator. The work functions as an artistic autobiographical summary and a nostalgic confession of the beginning of the author’s own creative path, blurring the strict boundaries between reality and fiction.