Article

Name: «Krapivin’s Recipe»: Plot Model of Vladislav Krapivin Realistic Prose in 1960–1980s

Authors: Inna A. Sergienko

Research Center for Russian Children’s Literature at the Institute of Russian Literature (the Pushkin House) RAS, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation

In the section Russian Children’s Literature: Plots and Gender

Abstract:  In this article the author examines distinctive features of plot building by Vladislav Krapivin, focusing on his realistic prose in the period from the beginning of 1960 to the beginning of 1980. This essay deals with Krapivin’s texts that are considered the core of his work, which are the vignettes, short novels and novels, distinguished by the image of “krapivin’s boy” – the main character type in Krapivin’s writing. There are such works as novels “Kashka the armor-bearer” (1966), “The side where the wind is “The side where the wind is” (1964–1966), “Caravel’s Shadow” (1971), “A Musketeer and a Fairy” (1978), “The Little Bolt” (1979), “A Lullaby for a Ârother” (1979), “Three some from the Square of the Carronades” (1981), “The Little Crane and the Lightings” (1982) and the trilogy “The boy with a sword” (1973–1975). Sketchiness of Krapivin’s plot models is analyzed in the context of children’s literature specifics; we discover and explore how Krapivin’s literary techniques are connected with traditions, patterns and schemes of children’s literature; we attempt to define Krapivin’s individual style and to discern his unique techniques in plot building. This essay puts forward a hypothesis that the main themes of Krapivin’s realistic texts and, consequently, the themes’ manifestation in plots, are influenced not by literary tradition alone, but also by biographic framework. The author of the article considers the features of the figure of the main character of Krapivin’s works, describes the main clichs and stereotypes used by the author to create this image. Distinctive features of the main character (“Krapivin’s boy”) define very specific and limited set of plots that are related to the realities of the boys’ gender socialization after the Second World War and from 1906s to 1980s. There is a reasonable assumption on the reasons why there are so few girl-related plots and why the girl characters are clinging and auxiliary in relation to male characters. The author of the article concluded that Krapivin embodies the central theme of his prose – the plot of the test of the hero – in specific plots related to the realities of socialization of teenage boys from intelligent circles living in provincial Russian cities in the post-war and late Soviet period (1950–1980 years). The article notes that the important moment of the boy’s gender socialization is the acquisition and appropriation of a “heroic identity” by him and that most of Krapvin’s stories tell about this phenomenon.

Keywords: Vladislav Krapivin’s prose, plots of realistic prose by Vladislav Krapivin, plot in children’s literature, “krapivin’s boys”, portraying of gender socialization in Soviet children’s literature

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