Title of the article:

FAIRY TALE — MYTH — LOGOS IN THE POETICS OF G. YAKHINA'S NOVEL “CHILDREN OF MINE”

Author(s):

Nadezhda I. Pavlova 

Information about the author/authors

Nadezhda I. Pavlova — PhD in Philology, Associate Professor, Tver State Technical University, A. Nikitina St., 22, 170026 Tver, Russia. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5038-1898. E-mail: nadija_80@mail.ru

Section

Philological sciences

Year

2021

Volume

Vol. 59

Pages

pp. 237–247

Received

November 11, 2019

Date of publication

March 28, 2021

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37816/2073-9567-2021-59-237-247

Index UDK

821.161.1.0

Index BBK

83.3(2Рос=Рус)7

Abstract

The article is to study a mythological subtext of the novel “Children of mine” by G. Yakhina, which appeared at different levels: composition, plot, construction of the system of characters ' images. Main character of the novel, Jacob Bach, and his beloved Clara are reunited into a single whole, not only as lovers, but also as representatives of two interrelated and complementary principles of German culture-folklore and literature. The interaction of this pair of heroes should be considered in this symbolic context. Thus, the novel develops a fundamentally significant for its conception motif of prophecy, which implies a subtext about the creation of the world-Logos, which is further developed in the narrative, when the image of the main character fulfills the function of guardian of the cultural memory of the Volga Germans. At the same time, the act of creativity is synonymous with creation, which allows us to grasp in a complex novel whole the repeatability of components of a closed cycle of “myth-life”, fully realized in its narrative structure. Mythological world surrounding Bach is in opposition to the space of Soviet history, embodied in the image of the agitator Hoffmann. There is an inverted picture of the world: historical world as dead and the world of culture as a living world. Thus, in the novel, the poles of life and death exchange places in relation to the present and the past. In view of this conception, one can read a deep intention of the writer representing the word of culture as giving immortality and life in eternity.

Keywords

subtext, mythologism, Guzel Yakhina, mythopoetics, national identity, Volga Germans, historical memory.

References

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6 Pavlova N. I. Poetika vizual'nosti v romane G. Iakhinoi “Deti moi”: k voprosu o fenomene literaturnogo uspekha [The Poetics of Visuality in the novel “Children of mine” by G. Yakhina: on the issue of the phenomenon of literary success]. Kul'tura i tekst, 2018, no 3 (34), pp. 52–66. (In Russian)

7 Cherniavskaia Iu. Knigi, o kotorykh govoriat. Guzel' Iakhina: ot “Zuleikhi” k “Detiam” [The books they talk about. Guzel Yakhina: from “Zuleikha” to “Children”]. In: TUT BY MEDIA. LLC. Available at: https://news.tut.by/culture/593657.html (accessed 20 October 2019). (In Russian)

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