Article

Name: «Secret Secrets» as a Principle of the Plotary Organization of the Novel of Vsevolod Ivanov «Ilyich Avenue»

Authors: V. N. Yarantsev

Independent researcher, Novosibirsk

In the section Vsevolod Ivanov. Literature of Siberia

Abstract: Ivanov’s work “Ilyich Avenue”, as a work “returned”, is examined in the context of the ideological and aesthetic closeness of his book “The Secret Secrets”, also recently introduced into scientific circulation. The military theme, the plot of opposition to the enemy allows the main substantive and constructive principle of the book of Vs. Ivanov’s stories through a combination of real and “secret” to function in the novel at the intertextual level, echoing the works of classics and contemporaries of the writer. The closeness of the novel to the military works of L. Tolstoy and A. Platonov, as well as similarities with the construction of the novel by B. Pasternak “Doctor Zhivago”, are found. The principle of “estrangement”, evident in depicting the realities of the life of the city and the factory, heroes and their actions, with the tangible presence of the Siberian- “eastern” “material”, extends to the plot of the novel “Ilyich Avenue”. Analysis of some storylines related to the main characters’ relations: the scene of acquaintance, forays into the camp of the Nazis, the defense of the Palace of Culture, etc., reveals the use of the “error” technique known in the literature, as well as “recognition / non-recognition” in the aspect of poetics “secrets” and “mystery novel”. Subsequently, he entered the recordings of Vs. Ivanov on the theory of literature. The presence of these signs is confirmed by comparison with the novel by B. Pasternak “Doctor Zhivago”, which also contains “enigmatic intrigue”, which serves as an important structural principle of this work. For the novel “Ilyich Avenue”, these features, organic in relation to the work of B. Pasternak, are in complex relations with the content side, entering into a certain discord with the theme of war and the author’s anti-war pathos. This was reflected in the apparent incompleteness of the novel, submitted undated edition of the text. At the same time, such “incompleteness” is one of the leading signs of Ivanov’s creativity in general, which emanated from the poetics of the “secret secrets”, suggesting an understatement. The succession of the novel “Ilyich Avenue” the main book of the writer of the mid-20s it is proved, therefore, in the aspect of the plot organization of this novel.

Keywords: creativity of Vs. Ivanov, military prose, poetics of mystery, detachment, intertextuality

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