Artistic Originality of Marcus Zusak\'s Novel \"Bridge of Clay\"

The common genres in modern literature frequently transform and become more complicated. Australian writer Marcus Zuzak often experiments with the genres of his works, creating unique philosophical novels about growing up in the modern world. The researchers examined his works in the context of young adult fiction, explored the forms of expression of the author, and also touched upon the role of spirituality in contemporary literature (S. DaSilva, 2017; M. Nimon, 2019; P. Campbell, Ch. Crowe, 2015). Yet some aspects of the novel's artistic originality have not been attempted to explore by researchers, however, their importance in the context of modern literary criticism is certain. The aim of present study is to examine the parable specificity features of genre transformation of Zusac's Bridge Of Clay (2018). To evaluate this claim, biographical, comparative-historical and structural research methods were used. The study shows that the use of the parable genre in the novel allows a more in-depth understanding of the existential problems of growing up in the modern world, which are posed by the author. Therefore, it can be said that the specificity of the narrative tends to be directly related to the genre definition of the work as a parable. Key words: parable, narration, intertext, artistic originality, genre