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BLURRING THE BORDERS OF THE ISLAND: THE PLOTLINES OF THE PLAY BY M. BULGAKOV “THE CRIMSON ISLAND” // Tomsk State Pedagogical University Bulletin. 2014. Issue 11 (152). P. 66-71

The article is dedicated to the relation of the two plot lines in Bulgakov's play “The Crimson Island”. The primary thread is focused on the themes of theatrical “production” and repertoire problems, the relationship between theater administration and the aspiring author, the state, impersonated by the all-powerful bureaucrat, and the rehearsal, which, given the extreme circumstances with the possibility of the theater closing, is already being run as the final, general rehearsal. The secondary thread, the history of a remote island, lies at the foundation of the aforementioned play. The researchers outline this as a self-contained text within a text. Analysis of the event poetics allows the authors to claim that the expressiveness of “The Crimson Island” as such a text is characterized by the constant breaking through borders of two interweaving plotlines.

Keywords: M. Bulgakov, “The Crimson Island”, convetionality epic drama, event poetics, authorship issue, headline, text within text borders

THE USE OF THE SLAPSTICK EXPRESSIVENESS IN BULGAKOV’S PLAY «THE DAYS OF THE TURBINS» // Tomsk State Pedagogical University Bulletin. 2018. Issue 2 (191). P. 180-187

The play The Days of the Turbins is usually studied in view of author’s and his characters’ political standings in the situation of the extremely dramatic change of government in Russia. The article analyzes the poetical manner of the play and finds out that the author used a wide variety of the expressive means, not just comical, but even slapstick. These slapstick elements can be found on the different levels and stages of the action: the play starts with obviously comical Nikolka’s «cook song» and ends with exceedingly passionate and comical, yet somewhat lyrical speaches by Lariosik. There is a system in use of the slapstick expressive means in description of authorities running away: from the implicit ones (the discussion of tsar by the drunk friends, singing Pushkin’s poem The Song of the Wise Oleg, rumors from Shervinsky about tsar’s return) to the explicit climactic slapstick scene in hetman’s palace. In the system of characters with use of means of comic not only Lariosik and Shervinsky’s images, but also Talberg are allocated: this not comic character is presented in a farcical situation of delay, replacement with another, in dialogue with repetitions, in zoomorfny assessment. The comic travesty of serious things, slapstick and drama in different forms and scales are considered in this article on the poetic manner in the play The Days of the Turbins as coexisting, contrasting, outlining, rejecting each other. The authors of the article believe that system manifestation of the slapstick poetic manner by the author of The Days of the Turbins shows to M. Bulgakov’s participation in that direction of creative search of theatrical vanguard of the 1920th years which was expressed in Mayakovsky’s dramatic art, Erdman - authors by Vs. Meyerkhold.

Keywords: M. Bulgakov, The Days of the Turbins (Dni Turbinykh), action, poetic manner, expressive means, comical, travesty, explicit and implicit slapstick comedy means

THE CRIMSON ISLAND BY MIKHAIL BULGAKOV: FROM FEUILLETON TO DRAMA // Tomsk State Pedagogical University Bulletin. 2018. Issue 2 (191). P. 188-195

The article analyzes for the first time the poetics of Bulgakov’s satirical piece The Crimson Island and transformation of its distinctive features in the play of the same name. The satirical piece The Crimson Island features not only doubling of the object and subject of satire, but also slapstick dramatization and dialog structure of the text. The piece of prose, written in 1924, incorporates in «translation of a novel by Jules Verne» a series of short reports by anonymous American reporter about the exotic island for the Western audience. The principle of coexistence of texts in different genres by «different authors» is represented as «a play inside a play» in 1928. Comparison of texts in different genres with the same name, analysis of the hypothetical island story in the play, with a background story, taking place in a Soviet theatre in 1930s, shows that the comic mode, which is present both in the satirical piece and the play, having the same slapstick nature, is more prominent in dialogs of the play. The article states that Bulgakov uses the literary device, not the genre, and describes its functions. The article focuses on the main character in the satirical piece and the island story in the play, Kiri-Kuki. The «court fraud» in the first variant, who met his bad end, gains artistic volume to its character as a part of complex artistic image of an emerging author Dymogatsky in the play. He is the first proof of the Bulgakov’s growing interest in the fate of an artist under «the arbitrary power».

Keywords: M. Bulgakov, The Crimson Island, poetics, parody, slapstick, power issue, satirical piece