Article

Name: PARODIC PLOTS IN THE FLASH FICTION OF A. VELTMAN

Authors: M. F. Klimentyeva

Tomsk Humanities Lyceum, Tomsk, Russian Federation

In the section Literary Life of the Plot

Abstract: It was declared in the report of M. Klimenteva (Tomsk) «Parodic plots in the flash fiction of A. Veltman» that some narrative patterns exist in the short novels and novellas of Veltman, and mostly these patterns are naturally parodic. In the context of the works, published in the regular editions of that time, the creations of Veltman show some artistic tendencies of the formation of popular literature. The term «popular literature» can be paronimically expanded: «fiction», «media literature», «belles letters», «literature of the second and third rows». The common characteristics of literary texts give the opportunity to see a wide adaptive range of trends representing the apparition of plots, figures and motifs in this type of literature. Despite the fact that this sort of literature can be found mostly in the magazines that are «commercially oriented», and Veltman did not belong to this movement, the artistic features of Veltman’s works tend to be examined in general, in the relation and the context of literature «of the second and third rows». Besides, consideration must be given to the phenomenon of the reader, of the subscriber of those magazines, where Veltman’s short novels and novellas used to be published. Account must be taken of the reader’s experience, taste in literature, their necessities along with their requirements, the level of the reader’s reception and their cultural introspection. In such a manner the representation of an average, «general» reader of «media literature» was cultivated. The material for the research is represented by short novels and novellas of Veltman of 1835–1850, in particular: short novels «Neistovyy Roland» («Roland the furious»; «Provintsial'nye aktery» («Provincial actors»), 1835), «Olga (1837)», «Kosteshtskie skaly» («The rocks of Kosteshti», 1839), «Radoy» (1839). Novellas: «Erotida», «Alenushka» (1836) and «Ne dom, a igrushechka» («Not a house, but a toy», 1850). From the perspective of the genre and compositional structure the analysis of the texts of Veltman’s works suggests that some narrative patterns, schemes and figures of the text, which are parodic by nature, were created in the author’s flash fiction. Parodistic assimilation of plot devices leads to the creation in the writer’s prose of the system of tenacious cultural proclivities, which were proven in the popular literature and fixed in the mind of a general reader.

Keywords: theory of parody, narrative patterns, popular literature

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