Formal Repetition as a Device Reinforcing the Theme of Powerlessness

Abstract

Innovative authors who explore various narrative techniques have often been inclined to tell one story from several diff erent perspectives. The aim of this paper is to analyze formal repetition employed in three contemporary narratives: J.M. Coetzee's Diary of a Bad Year (2007), Dariusz Orszulewski's Jezus nigdy nie był aż taki blady (2013), as well as House Mother Normal (1971) by these authors' avant-garde predecessor, B.S Johnson. Johnson was an author ahead of his time, better fi tted in the literary discourse of the 21st century, which is proven by his presently republished oeuvre having gained fresh literary signifi cance among both scholars and readers. Each of the novels subject to analysis in this study is compiled from thoughts and observations of the same events but originating from diff erent characters. Their individual accounts, typographically separated from each other, create a multitude of perspectives on the mental and physical inadequacy felt by the characters.