Article

Name: The Siberian Tradition of Spell in the Story by Vsevolod Ivanov “Smokotinin’s Life”

Authors: A. B. Krivenko

Russian Academy of Arts, Moscow, Russian Federation

In the section Siberian Writers and Siberia in the Russian Literature of the 20th Century

Abstract: This paper is dedicate to studying the problem of spell as a plot structure. We analyze the story by Vsevolod Ivanov “Smokotinin’s Life”, the main hero – Timofei Smokotinin – of which is composed the original spell: “on whom this sigh, that one will be sliver dry”. Many Siberian spell used dry silver as a basic element of love magic and witchcraft. We show as Vsevolod Ivanov compiled some Siberian spells and created original author’s spell. On keywords of this spell – “sliver” and “sigh” founded the plot of this story. The interject “oh” illustrated the ache of love Timofei Smokotinin and the induced psychosis, in which the inductor and recipient – the same person: the main hero. He translated the domestic episode firing up the oven by Catherina into the love magic plan. The Siberian tradition had many rituals with the act of firing up the oven with sliver. May be Vsevolod Ivanov known them and used in the own story. The individual style Vsevolod Ivanov show how masterfully he created the plot of “Smokotinin’s Life”. The interject “oh”, including in many words of this story. And the sliver as an “oh” became not only the symbol of tragic Smokotinin’s Life, but a basic elements of composition. The tendency of modernism this story by Vsevolod Ivanov Vyach. Vs. Ivanov saw also in the story “The Damned Thing” (1898) by American writer Ambrose Bierce. The main problem of both stories – death the main hero from the autoinduced psychosis. Finally, we offer the neurosemiotics method to studying creative manner Vsevolod Ivanov.

Keywords: spell, plot, story “Smokotinin’s Life”, Siberian tradition, modernism

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