FACE UNDER A MASK (IDENTITY PHENOMENON IN LITERATURE)

Abstract

The phenomenon of identity has always been a crucial issue for literature, through which, diagetically and mimetically, the universal meaning of a literary work is sought. Literary heroes used to look up to the Absolute, looking for an answer to the eternal question of meaningful existence and self-knowledge, but modern literature has created heroes who in this search first rely on their own reception - the world and themselves in the world.
The modern age deals with the phenomenon of identity that is hidden, transformed, sometimes degraded or glorified; an identity that is a "face under a mask." Paradoxically, Sioran argues, changing or hiding one's identity actually leads to a higher level of self- knowledge and a more persistent search for the true of "Me". Masks were worn by kings and priests, actors and doctors during the plague, but we should not forget that masks are a phenomenological hub of duality: they can have both positive and negative connotations.
The oldest literature and myth warn that changing identity, transformation, was most often the privilege of the gods, which they used for their own benefit, or as a punishment for mortals. It is interesting that no metamorphosis has changed the ontological picture - neither the divine nor the mortal being, but it has been confirmed in its essence.
In literary creation, authors often explain their intentions, not hiding that writing is also a kind of disguise, metamorphosis of one's own experiences, reminiscences, ideas. When it comes to literary heroes, it is certain that the reception of a literary text is a process of "undressing", gradual unmasking and traveling towards the true identity of the hero.
For Shakespeare, „the world is a stage“, and people are costumed actors, narrators of other people's thoughts. For Verlaine, every man is "under a lovely mask, both sad and beautiful." Milisav Savić's novel La Sans Pareille is paradigmatic as a story about the forced and conscious transformation of heroes, disguise, but also the gradual discovery of true identity.