PROTOPLOT IN MODERN LITERATURE (CASE STUDY OF SYBIL BY F.R. SCHREIBER)

Abstract

The article focuses on the structural peculiarities of Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber (1973), the plot structure in particular. The novel has become one of the first non-fiction interpretations of a life of a character suffering from a dissociative identity disorder (multiple identity disorder). It is possible to highlight the phases of a character development by analogy with phases of archetype models in myths and fairy tales. The story of Sybil reminds of many other stories, but it has a renewed content. The phases of a character’s life cycle (such as Departure, Partnership, Liminal phase and Transformation) remain unchanged, which proves that the basis of folk culture is relevant for modern literature. Interruption of the flow of events can be seen as one of the main building blocks of narration. Narratology deals with interpretation of deviations in chronological descriptions of events. The break in chronology in the novel is connected with psychoanalytical underpinning of the novel. Psychoanalysis is aimed at finding the reasons of the distress in the past. That explains why the symptoms come before the reasons in the novel.