PERSONAL MEMORY AND PSYCHOLOGICAL COMPLEXITY IN JULIAN BARNES'S NOVELS

Аннотация

In contemporary British literature, increasing attention is being paid to the intricacies of human psychology, memory, and identity. Julian Barnes occupies a distinctive position in this landscape, portraying personal memory not as an objective record but as a subjective reconstruction. His protagonists engage in acts of recollection as a means of self-understanding and resolving internal psychological tensions. This process is frequently marked by defense mechanisms, inner conflicts, and stylistic intricacies. This article examines the artistic representation of personal memory and psychological complexity in Barnes’s novels The Sense of an Ending, Flaubert’s Parrot, and Talking It Over. The analysis is grounded in psychoanalytic theory, particularly Freud’s concepts of repression and rationalization, as well as Jung’s notions of the persona and the shadow. Furthermore, the study explores how Barnes’s stylistic techniques - such as unreliable narration, polyphonic narrative voices, and fragmented structure -serve to deepen the psychological and epistemological ambiguity of his texts.