Article

Name: The Story of the Beating of a Horse in V. Nekrasov’s Story “In the Trenches of Stalingrad”

Authors: Tatiana A. Bogumil

Altai State Pedagogical University, Barnaul, Russian Federation

In the section Literary Life of the Plot

Abstract:

In the article, the genesis, structure and semantics of the plot about a beaten horse are outlined. The research methodology is based on the techniques and methods of structural-semiotic and intertextual approaches, as well as motive analysis. Traditionally, a horse is associated with a suffering person / peasantry / people / humanity. The principle of psychological parallelism underlies the metaphorical implementation of the plot in the works of Russian and foreign writers of the 19th and 20th centuries (N. A. Nekrasov, N V. Uspensky, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, V. P. Astafyev, L. M. Leonov and others; V. Hugo, Ch. Baudelaire). The plot is first examined on the material of the story “In the Trenches of Stalingrad” by V. Nekrasov. The model for the plot under the study is the episode of Raskolnikov’s dream in F.M. Dostoevsky’s novel “Crime and Punishment”. The other intertextual echoes connect the story with the poems by V. V. Mayakovsky “Good Treatment of Horses” and S. A. Esenin’s “Mares’ Ships”, and R. E. Raspe’s book “The Adventures of Baron Munchhausen” (“Half a Horse”). In the story, the plot of the beaten horse becomes a statement about the victory achieved by sweat, blood, pain, suffering, and death of the people. The book’s reality, realistic and fantastically absurd, is tested by the personal life experience of the authorized narrator. The bravura-boastful description of Baron Munchhausen’s battles and victories is similar to the official narrative of the Great Patriotic War, and V. Nekrasov’s “trench truth” argues with it.

Keywords: intertext, motive, absurdity, Great Patriotic War

Bibliography:

Golovchiner V. E. “Khoroshee otnoshenie k loshadyam” i “Prozasedavshiesya” v kontekste russkoi klassiki [“Good Attitude to Horses” and “The Pro-Sitting Ones” in the Context of Russian Classics]. Sibirskii Filologicheskii Zhurnal [Siberian Journal of Philology], 2007, no. 3, pp. 38–47. (in Russ.)

Kasatkina T. A. O tvoryashchei prirode slova. Ontologichnost' slova v tvorchestve F. M. Dostoevskogo kak osnova realizma v vysshem smysle [On the Creative Nature of the Word. The Ontological Nature of the Word in the Works of F. M. Dostoevsky as the Basis of Realism in the Highest Sense]. Moscow, IWL RAS, 2004, 480 p. (in Russ.)

Korshunkov V. A. “Bit' po glazam”: obraz zhestoko nakazannoi loshadi i rasprostranenie etogo motiva v russkoi belletristike i publitsistike XIX–XXI vekov [“To Lash on the Eyes”: The Image of a Cruelly Punished Horse and the Spread of this Motif in Russian Fiction and Journalism in the 19th – 21st Centuries]. Herald of Humanitarian Education, 2023, iss. 3 (31), pp. 140–147. (in Russ.) DOI 10.25730/VSU.2070.23.047

Lapshin I. Estetika Dostoevskogo [Dostoevsky’s Aesthetics]. In: Dolinina A. S. (ed.) F. M. Dostoevsky. Stat'i i materialy [F. M. Dostoevsky. Articles and Materials]. Petrograd, Mysl' Publ., 1922, pp. 93–152. (in Russ.)

Pavlova I. B. “Russkaya loshad' znaet knut…”: ob odnom “stradatel'nom” obraze u M. E. Saltykova-Shchedrina, N. A. Nekrasova i F. M. Dostoevskogo [“The Russian Horse Knows the Whip...”: About one “Passionate” Image in M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, N. A. Nekrasov and F. M. Dostoevsky]. Russian Speech, 2011, no. 3, pp. 12–15. (in Russ.)

Pecherskaya T. I. Syuzhet o zagnannoi loshadi v interpretatsii N. A. Nekrasova i F. M. Dostoevskogo [Plot about the Exhausted Horse in the Interpretation by N. A. Nekrasov and F. M. Dostoevsky]. Philological Sciences. Scientific Essays of Higher Education, 2019, no. 5, pp. 69–74. (in Russ.) DOI 10.20339/PhS.5-19.069

Perevalova S. V. Geroiko-patrioticheskie traditsii russkoi kul'tury v proze V. P. Nekrasova o Stalingradskoi bitve [Heroic and Patriotic Traditions of the Russian Culture in the Prose of V. P. Nekrasov about the Stalingrad Battle]. Ivzestia of the Volgograd State Pedagogical University, 2020, no. 2 (145), pp. 232–238. (in Russ.)

Serman I. Z. Nekrasov i Viktor Gyugo [Nekrasov and Victor Hugo]. In: Berkov P. N. et al. (eds.). Russko-evropeiskie literaturnye svyazi: Sbornik statey k 70-letiyu so dnya rozhdeniya akademika M. P. Alekseeva [Russian-European Literary Connections: A Collection of Articles for the 70th Anniversary of the Birth of Academician M. P. Alekseev]. Moscow, Leningrad, Nauka, 1966, pp. 128–135. (in Russ.)

Shchelokova L. I. Ot pravdy budnei Sevastopolya k okopnoi pravde Stalingrada: opyt sopostavleniya “Sevastopol'skikh rasskazov” L. N. Tolstogo i “V okopakh Stalingrada” V. P. Nekrasova [From the Truth of Everyday Life of Sevastopol to Trench the Truth of Stalingrad: the Experience of the Association “Sevastopol Stories” by L. N. Tolstoy and “In the Trenches of Stalingrad” by V. P. Nekrasov]. Cross-Cultural Studies: Education and Science, 2018, no. 3, pp. 74–79. (in Russ.)

Shchennikov G. K. Khudozhestvennoe myshlenie F. M. Dostoevskogo [Artistic thinking of F. M. Dostoevsky]. Sverdlovsk, Sred.-Ural. kn. izd-vo Publ., 1978, 176 p. (in Russ.)

Skatov N. N. Nekrasov [Nekrasov]. Moscow, Molodaya gvardiya Publ., 2004, 426 p. (in Russ.)

Smirnov I. P. Porozhdenie interteksta (elementy intertekstual'nogo analiza s primerami iz tvorchestva B. L. Pasternaka) [Generation of intertext (Elements of intertextual analysis with examples from the works of B. L. Pasternak)]. St. Petersburg, Yazykovoi tsentr Publ., 1995, 192 p. (in Russ.)

Vasilieva S. A. Syuzhet ob izbienii loshadi: dialog L. M. Leonova i F. M. Dostoevskogo [The Plot of the Beating of a Horse: a Dialogue Between L. M. Leonov and F. M. Dostoevsky]. Vestnik TvSU Series: Philology, 2021, no. 3 (70), pp. 197–200. (in Russ.) DOI 10.26456/vtfilol/2021.3.197

Yakimova L. P. Motivnaya struktura romana Leonida Leonova “Piramida” [Motif structure of Leonid Leonov’s novel “Pyramid”]. Novosibirsk, SB RAS Publ., 2003, 248 p. (in Russ.)