The chronotope in Stephen King's It and the role of metatext in the first part of the novel

The article is aimed at identifying the prognostic role of the first part of Stephen King’s pentalogy It. The research objective was to investigate, step by step, the space and time coordinates, chronotope, narrative characteristics, and the role of metatext in the first part of the novel. The novelty of the research is determined by the pentalogy’s popularity in Russia and insufficient knowledge about the listed aspects. The article gives the first-of-its-kind detailed analysis of the space and time paradigm of the novel’s first part. It further proves that the artistic space focuses on the life of a fictional American town Derry. It is depicted in a realistic way thorugh the specific examples of urban structure and animated town life. However, the town has its own mystical history related to the atrocities committed by a monster named “It”, which assumes the form of a middle-aged man dressed in a clown costume to trap and hawk children. This indicates from the very beginning that the author starts developing a horror novel. The author’s projections to the past of seven preteens, who survived the clash with It and forgot about it, suddenly come back after twenty-eight years in the extensive biographies of the adult characters. Space and time symbiosis of the first part of the novel It can be defined as the chronotope of lost and returned childhood trauma resulting from the encounter with It. The change of the narrative point of view from the all-knowing narrator to one of the characters, Michael, in the final interlude “Derry” enables King to start a game with the reader, extensively using metatext for showing the author’s assessment of the events described in the novel. The author’s digressions and signs of inner states (italicized in the text) build reader’s receptive strategy in the future struggle between good and evil. King aims the reader’s effort at restoring peace in the town and solving the mystery of the ferocities that have no rational explanations. All the prerequisites for the grown main characters’ victory over It are created in the first part of the pentalogy.