ANTHROPOCENE ISSUES AS PART OF THE RANGE OF THEMES AND MOTIFS IN A. ROY’S “THE MINISTRY OF UTMOST HAPPINESS”

Abstract

In this paper the author has explored the range of thematic problems and motifs that reveal the anthropocentric issues presented in the scope of the contemporary novel. The term “anthropocentric literature” is discussed as one that determines the vector of development of post-postmodern fiction. Extra-literary factors that influenced the novels, in which environmental issues are of a particular importance, as well as those which display the anthropocentric views of the characters or narrators are studied. It is noted that the anthropocentric paradigm confirms the ontological status for nature, affirming it not as a resource for human development that has value only in terms of the progress of civilization but as an independent phenomenon. The development of anthropocentric issues in the novels in the UK is outlined and linked with the considerable attention of contemporary readers and society in general to environmental issues, such as global warming, climate change and the search for safe energy sources. The author discusses the impact that Margaret Attwood’s novel “The Handmaid’s Tale” has had on anthropocentric discourse in the English-language literary world in general. The scope of problems and motives determined by anthropocentric issues, which are at the center of attention of narrators and key characters who discuss the relationship between civilization and nature from a new philosophical angle, is established. The writer shows how the novels Ian McEwan’s “Solar”, Arundhati Roy’s “The Ministry of Utmost Happiness”, and Ali Smith’s “Winter” incorporate nonliterary elements that determine their social and epistemological significance. The views of British literary theorists on the nature of anthropocentric issues are characterized; the philosophical specifics of this phenomenon are discussed. The vectors of interpretation of anthropocentric problems in literary criticism, as well as the forms of representation of this phenomenon in the contemporary novel are explained. “The Ministry of Utmost Happiness” demonstrates a new kind of thematic problem unit and ranges of motifs related to the anthropocentric issues identified and ascertained in the paper.