The event of story-telling in the narrative structure of The Boy Tar; or, A Voyage in the Dark by Thomas Mayne Reid

The article analyzes the story-telling event in the narrative structure of The Boy Tar; or, A Voyage in the Dark by Thomas Mayne Reid. Books by Mayne Reid (the so-called Captain Mayne Reid) were very popular among Russian readers at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries (as well as books by Robert Louis Stevenson, James Fenimore Cooper, Jules Gabriel Verne and others); however, in Russia there is no tradition of research aimed at the study of his texts. The Boy Tar was translated in Russian from French (Le Petit Loup de Mer) at the end of the 19th century and was titled A Marine Cub; or, A Voyage in the Bottom of the Hold. The chronotope of this adventure is very original: a single hero in a single chronotope, which correlates with adventure novels or Robinsonades. The author assumes that this experiment is connected with esthetics of E.A. Poe and his philosophy of composition. Poe wrote, that "method is more important than subject", method is the main element of composition. This construction should apply to an existential paradigm or phenomenology, but the worldview of the Boy tar is closely connected with the new positivism of Auguste Comte. Phillip Forster has an excellent ability to think and a real positivist consciousness. He solves different problems: finds water and food, fights with rats and kills them, and, finally, finds a way from the bottom to the top, to the deck. While traveling in the darkness (A Voyage in the Dark), with the motto Excelsior, he shall rise from darkness to light. The final plot point is the character's coming to the surface; it marks a kind of crossing the border which allows to overcome the curse and become a sailor and, finally, the captain. The mythopoetic reflection is also presented in the title of the novel. All the experience is determined by the narrative key "Homo-mesura" that is represented in the text (chapters "Excelsior" and "Quod erat faciendum", a few episodes in his story-telling). This method allows to perceive the perfect consciousness of the hero and his incredible adventures in the framework of conventions the text sets. 1. The event is not told. It takes place in real time (the character's time = the present). 2. The 12-year-old Phillip Forster has an experienced human mind (consciousness of the narrator = consciousness of the character). 3. The character's pure and practical reasons are equal. 4. All incidents in the novel are unintentional. 5. Most of the events happen in the dark. Thus, the pleasure of reading is inextricably linked to the conventions adopted by the reader. Deviation from any of the conventions exposes the conditionality of the narrative, casts doubt on the diegetic narrative plan and destroys the illusion of the novel's authenticity The conclusion states that the narrator discrediting himself (and through himself the narrative (unreliable narration)) is "justified" by the narratee - a collective portrait of the young (establishment for young gentlemen), reading a book of youth of the aging master, writer, dreamer.

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