THE NOVELLA OF VIL LIPATOV “BACK BEFORE THE WAR”: STORY OF PERSONAL SELF-DETERMINATION IN THE CHRONOTOPE OF A KOLKHOZ VILLAGE
In his novella “Back Before the War” (1971) Vil Lipatov follows the traditions of «kolkhozny novel» and soviet mass culture of 1930s–1950s when creating the image of a taiga village Ulym. Using archaic motifs and images including ones connected with an initiation ceremony such as a house in the forest, a substitution fiancé, an orphan, the prodigal son, the author builds the cyclic model of patriarchal world and combining the idyllic topos simultaneously with the idea of pagan paradise, myth of self-sufficiency of a patriarchal village and soviet mythologems. The myth, which is a fundamental principle of the story, makes the peaceful coexistence of all three layers possible. The main character of the novel – a carrier of the individual conciseness – goes through some kind of initiation, becomes familiar with the natural, eternal forms of objective reality and at the same time she goes out of the borders of the idyllic chronotope while leaving the exclusive world the main goal of which is birth of children.
Keywords: novella, Vil Lipatov, idyll, “Back Before the War”, chronotope, folk motif, initiation, “kolkhozny novella”, a house in the forest, orphan, the prodigal son
References:
1. Lipatov V. V. Eshche do voyny [“Back Before the War”]. URL: royallib.com/book/lipatov_vil/eshche_do_voyni.html (accessed 12 March 2015) (in
Russian).
2. Bakhtin M. M. Formy vremeni i khronotopa v romane. Ocherki po istoricheskoy poetike. Voprosy literatury i estetiki [Forms of time and chronotope in the novel. Essays on historical poetics. Questions of Literature and Aesthetics]. Moscow, Khudozhestvennaya literatura, 1975. 504 p. (in Russian).
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5. Propp V. Ya. Istoricheskiye korni volshebnoy skazki [The historical roots of the fairy tale]. Moskva, Labirint Publ., 2000. 336 p. (in Russian).
6. Rybal’chenko T. L. Obrazy aborigenov v proze V. Rasputina i V. Astaf’eva [Images Aboriginal in prose V. Rasputin and V. Astaf’ev (“Farewell to Matyora”, and “King-fi sh”). URL: http://astafi ev.sfu-kras.ru/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Obrazyi-aborigenov-v-proze-V.Rasputina-i-V.Astafeva.-Ryibalchenko-T.L..pdf (accessed 8 March 2015).
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Issue: 6, 2015
Series of issue: Issue 6
Rubric: RUSSIAN AND FOREIGN LITERATURE OF THE XX CENTURY
Pages: 201 — 207
Downloads: 793