Cognition of the ‘Alien’ in Hilary Mantel’s Short Story «Curved is the Line of Beauty»

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the analyses of the story «Curved is the Line of Beauty» by H. Mantel. The article deals with both the dichotomy of "own - alien" and the problems of post-colonial British literature. In the story, the author conveys a child's perception of people; H. Mantel breaks down stereotypical perceptions of dark-skinned people by processing the image of the dark-skinned person through the naive and creative perception of the child. We can better experience this childlike perception through the narrative's feature of the integration of the author and the narrator, so that the reader receives information from the 'primary source'. At the same time, despite the fact that the child's consciousness is not burdened with negative thoughts towards black people, the 'alien' is never able to become 'own' for the protagonist.