Article

Name: PERIPETIA OF POETICS BY V. ZAZUBRIN IN THE MIRROR OF LITERARY DESTINY (ON THE NOVEL “TWO WORLDS” AND THE STORY “SLIVER”)

Authors: E. N. Proskurina

Institute of Philology of the Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation

In the section Russian Literature of Siberia: Plots, Motives, Biographies

Abstract: The article examines the poetics of two most distinguished works by V. Zazubrin (1895– 1937): the novel “Two Worlds” (1921) and the story “Sliver” (1922). These works belong to the author’ early period when both his artistic personality and the peculiarities of his artistic language were under development. This process was tightly linked with the adventurous turns of Zazubrin’s biography. Having started his military career as a cadet of Irkutsk Military Academy, Zazubrin got enlisted in Kolchak’s Volunteer Army, and after its defeat went across to the Red Army. The personal experience of being both “white” and “red” during the Civil War made the basis for the “Two Worlds”. The novel’s initial chapters are written in a clear-cut contrast style: while peaceful scenes are characterized by a quiet flow of the narrative, in the war chapters the plasticity of the poetic language gives place to sharp, terse sentences. The expressive style which thus becomes dominant is appropriate to the novel’s main theme: the duel of the two worlds. The novel plot also undergoes change. Initially the plot corresponded to the confession of the autobiographical pacifist-like character bearing arms under Kolchak. However, in progress the author changes his humanistic message into propaganda which also makes difference to the novel’s poetics becoming focused on naturalistic details of numerous murders, deaths. In accordance with the propaganda task the Kolchakians are the main horror bearers in “Two Worlds”. This position was significantly influenced by the author’s desire to present himself as a strong revolutionary done with his White Guard background. The lack of plasticity in the narration and flexibility in characters, the focus on hero-mass, the undisguised propaganda impulse indicate that “Two Worlds” belong to the avant-garde type of artistry. In the story “Sliver” Zazubrin changes his manner in picturing the Revolution, choosing the revolutionary terror as the main topic. Zazubrin examines the topic from within the introspecting mind of the main character who shoots his victims in Cheka basements, demonstrating his moral tortures, the process of his gradual running mad. The bloody routine of Cheka is painted in colors of both physical and moral decomposition. The description of the hero’s madness incorporates a great number of allusions to Dostoyevsky’s works and his hallucinating characters (Golyadkin, Raskolnikov, Ivan Karamazov). This author’s willful deviation from the canonical description of the Revolution appeared inadmissible: “Sliver” was never published in any Soviet edition. In general the analysis of the novel and the story showed that Zazubrin’s creative thinking turned out to be more extensional than the ideological frame by which he attempted to limit his artistic word. The poetic structure of both texts reveals the complexity of the author’s artistic language where his preceding literary experience was creatively mingled with contemporary tendencies, first of all with the practice of avant-garde writing extended to the poetics of absurdity.

Keywords: works by v. zazubrin, revolution and literature, siberian literary avant-garde, poetics of absurdity

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Kurs A. Krovyanaya kolbasa [Blood sausage]. In: Yarancev V. Zazubrin. Chelovek, kotoryi napisal «Shchepku» [Zazubrin. The person who wrote the «Sliver»]. Novosibirsk, 2012, p. 710–719. (in Russ.)

Literaturnoe nasledstvo Sibiri [Literary heritage of Siberia]. Novosibirsk, Zapadno-Sibirskoe knizhnoe izdatel'stvo, 1972, vol. 2, 444 p. (in Russ.)

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