Article

Name: The Thematic Composition of an Emigrant Autobiographical Novel: From “The Life of Arsenyev” by I. Bunin to “The Gift” by V. Nabokov. Part 1

Authors: E. V. Kapinos

Institute of Philology SB RAS, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation

In the section The Plot in the System of Cultural Universals: Bunin, East and West of the Russian Emigration

Abstract:

Bunin’s novel “The Life of Arsenyev” is a completely new model, different from the classics of the 19 th century. In the novel “The life of Arsenyev” several themes are developed in a new way, in particular, the theme of aristocratic genealogy, it is deliberately deployed in all the richness of its cultural and historical semantics. The compositional rhythm of Bunin’s novel is subject, as often in the stories of this author, to elegiac laws with alternating and contrasting semantics of death, breakage, failure and rebirth, connection, love, life and creativity.

Nabokov reproduces in the novel “The gift” many features of the model developed by Bunin: poetic name and literary genealogy of the character. Expansion of literary and cultural subtexts through the development of genealogical and travel motifs; the elegiac alternation of the theme of death, rebirth and its connection with the eventual Nabokov plot.

Keywords: “The life of Arsenyev” by I. Bunin, “The gift” by V. Nabokov, autobiographical novel, poetic genealogy, poetic of character name, the compositional rhythm, the compositional structure of “The life of Arsenyev”

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