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About one detail in the story of I. A. Bunin “In Paris”
7. Lagarce J.-L. Theatre complet (III). - Besan$on: Les Solitaires intempestifs, 1999. - 319 p.
8. Lagarce J.-L. Theatre complet (IV). - Besan$on: Les Solitaires intempestifs, 2002. - 419 p.
9. Чехов А. П.- 21. Письма 1888-1889. - М., Наука, 1976. - № 384.
10. Вишневский А. Л. Клочки воспоминаний. - Л., «Academia», 1928.
Kudryashova Darya Borisovna, State University of Nizhny Novgorod, Arzamas Branch, Student of 4 course, the Faculty of History and Philology E-mail: lacydasha@gmail.com Pyatkin Sergei Nikolaevich, Ph. D., professor of literature E-mail: nikolas_pyat@mail.ru
About one detail in the story of I. A. Bunin “In Paris”
Abstract: The article deals with the analysis of one detail (overcoat) in the story of I. A. Bunin “In Paris”, which included in the cycle of stories of writer the “Dark avenues”. The special value is given to semantic completeness of analyzing detail as a method of additional comprehension of the idea of the story. The characteristic features of detail “overcoat” are marked in the system of the represented world of work of I. A. Bunin.
Keywords: Bunin, story, detail, represented world, motive, symbol.
An art detail is the detail of a portrait marked out by the writer. It may be a landscape, a psychological characteristic of the hero or an interior. The purpose of it is to underline its special symbolism, its graphic or expressive meaning. The set of details of the description of the subject world and nature, reconstruction of the interior and the exterior character of people, helps us to imagine the objects, natural phenomena, the heroes — completely and from different sides. But the art detail has another function: it is capable to exchange some details at once. The art detail is unique in its function. It focalizes the reader’s attention on the subject that the author wishes to mark out himself, on what he considers more significant and more important. As to the function of the detail, it can be psychological, symbolical, marking out, naturalistic, factual and impressionistic [2, 230-232].
I. Bunin, alongside with A. Chekhov is rightly considered one of the masters of an art detail in Russian literature. I. Bunin became one of the founders of a new kind of literary work — the story, the content of which is so deep and full, that it really can be compared to the content of a novel. Sometimes it seems, that I. Bunin, in detail, features out the setting surrounding of his heroes. It slows down the conflict in the story, but exactly this specific feature of Bunin attracts attention of the researchers and the readers.
Bunin’s creative feature is the completeness of the details being reproduced, their autonomy in which the detail, sometimes, appears in such connections with
the plot which are unusual for realism. In literature of the XIX century the details of description had always characterized the scene of action, showed the image of the hero or made more exact the action scene. Bunin’s details, on the contrary, not always obviously correspond to the general action pattern. “Coloring” and “sounding” epithets or adverbs («shining morning fumes above the sea», «enormous eyes», the approaching «blackness of the island», etc.) give the unusual «Bunin’s coloring» to the objects, to the states and to the actions being depicted.
Bunin, mainly, used a symbolic detail. In his works it acts as a self-maintained artistic image. For example, in the story «Antonov apples» the smell of apples is a figure of the past, of memory. In the story «Sunstroke» the name of the main heroine — Maria Marievna is a figure of a dream, of a fairy tale, of something wonderful and treasured. Also in this story the author pays attention to one more detail, it’s a hair pin — a figure of feminity, of beauty, of sublime and light feelings. The same female accessory we meet in the story «Cards». But here it acts as a figure of female dissoluteness, exemption from any moral prohibitions. But not all details are quite visible, and to detect them, we need to peer in the text closely.
In the story «In Paris» our attention is drawn to a small, casually mentioned detail of clothes — an overcoat. «In the passage, hanging on a peg, she saw his old summer overcoat, grey with a red lining» [1, 49-54].
Why does the author bring to a focus the overcoat in which the protagonist had never appeared in the story?
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Section 2. Literature
To start with, we shall find out, what an overcoat is.
From the beginning ofreign ofAlexander I an overcoat becomes one of the most necessary subjects of a soldier’s clothes. It was worn almost all the time. In summer, put on over an underwear shirt, it became the basic subject of the daily, field, guard and marching uniform. In winter — having unbuttoned the strap, a soldier could put it on over all ammunition, and even (when the frost was strong) over a short fur coat. An overcoat was made out of rough not dyed cloth ofvarious tones of grey-reddish color. Distinctive feature of the general’s uniform were red bands on overcoats. The collar, the cuffs, the pockets, the strap, the coat breasts were trimmed with the bands. Besides, the tops of an overcoat were made of red cloth. Full uniform overcoat was made of steel color cloth [3, 74].
It becomes clear, that « summer overcoat, grey with a red lining» is a general’s overcoat. It is not surprising, that the overcoat appears in the story, because our hero is a former general. We are informed about this fact in the narration.
«And, possibly, a general, — she said, smiling. — The former. Now I write historic essays of these wars ordered by different foreign publishing houses».
Color of a detail — «summer, grey overcoat with a red lining» — completely corresponds to the color of the existed overcoat. But, in our opinion, Bunin uses these colors not only to conform with a historic fact.
From the very beginning in the story «In Paris» two contrast plans are set: the gloom of the streets — light; inertness of life — love; spring — death.
The name of the story, apparently, gets us ready to see a solar, cheerful, city with small cozy streets along which loving couples are walking (in world culture there is an inconvertible myth about Paris as the city of love). But we meet «in wet Parisian evening in the late autumn» the protagonist — Nikolay Platonovich, the lonely retired general whose wife deserted him. He was going along «one of the dark side-streets near the Rue de Passy», then he saw a shop. «The shop was lit up and the light drew him from the dark street with its damp and greasy pavement. There he slowly arranged his grey hat and long coat on a projecting hanger, sat down at a table in the furthest corner». In all this the description there are grey, gloomy, boring colors which further characterize spatial images of the text: «On Monday evening it was raining, the heavy sky over Paris turned a hazy red». «At the entrance to the Metro Etoile he stopped the chauffeur, got out and stood on the pavement in the rain»; «He followed her into the half-dark interior, smelling of damp cloth». But the appearance of the main
heroine — Olga Aleksandrovna is described in another color: «Smartly and fashionably dressed, she looked him in the face with her black eyes-not a constrained look, as in the restaurant-she freely held out her hand, with an umbrella hanging over her arm, and with the other hand she smoothed the folds of her long dress». «Noticed her strong knees under the black dress, the glitter of her black eyes and the fullness of her red-tinted lips». Here the red color, as a symbol of changes, novelty, contrast appears. Further in the narration all these colors are called up more often: «Sitting again in the half-dark taxi looking at the windows streaked with rain, which now and then glistened like multicolored diamonds from the light of the street lamps among blood-colored or silvery advertisements, he again raised the comer of her glove and imprinted a prolonged kiss on her hand. She looked at him, her eyes staring strangely from under her coal-black eyelashes, and sadly, tenderly moved her face towards him her full lips had a sweet perfumed taste».
Since this moment we can observe prevalence oflight, bright tones — they also concern the conventional “red" line of the narration: «They entered into the lighted vestibule»; «He managed to fit the key in the lock of his door before the electric light went out, and led her into the hall, and from there into the little dining-room, where only one bulb in the chandelier burned dimly». «Silently he led her into the bedroom, switched on for her the light in the bathroom, the door of which was open from the bedroom. There the little bulbs burned brightly; it was warm from the heating, while the rain pattered evenly on the roof». In the last phrase all state of the hero is expressed: he has found something new, despite of the barriers, and this new is happiness. Further the protagonist — Nikolay Platonovich dies, but the colors of the narration are not laid on thick because of this fact. «It was a mild spring day, spring clouds were floating over the soft Paris sky, everything spoke of a new and lasting life».
Thus, the color — grey and red are the dominating colors of this writing. Grey symbolizes the doomed, sad life, without bright spots, and red is the color of life, passion, love; it’s like a bright outbreak in grey life.
But let’s see the text. The first meeting of the protagonists — Nikolay Platonovich and Olga Aleksandrovna — happens in the late autumn. «One day-it was a wet evening in the late Paris autumn, he went to dine in a small Russian restaurant in one of the dark side-streets near the Rue de Passy».
It is possible to claim, that their love affair had begun since autumn came. On «the third evening» he invited her to the cinema, and she agreed.
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About one detail in the story of I. A. Bunin “In Paris”
«On the third evening he asked: “Are you fond of the cinema?”
She answered as she put down on the table the bowl with borsch: “Sometimes it’s interesting”.
After cinema they went to a restaurant. He leaned towards her. “Do you know? Let us go somewhere on Montparnasse; it’s very boring here, and there’s nothing to breathe”. But they did not part after the restaurant. “Let us go to my flat”, he said sadly. “We can sit and talk a little longer...” And “in a day, having left her work, she came to live with him”». A very small part of the story is devoted to the description of the further events. «One day during the winter he persuaded her to rent a safe.». It means, that in winter everything was all right with the main characters, if Nikolay Platonovich persuaded Olga Aleksandrovna, as a matter of fact, to accept all the money he had earned. But happiness of the protagonists did not last long. «On the third day after Easter he died in a carriage of the underground». So, they spent together the autumn, the winter and the spring. But there was no summer spent together. «When she, dressed in black, returned from the cemetery, it was a mild spring day, spring clouds were floating over the soft Paris sky, everything spoke of a new and lasting life-but for her it was all finished». After Nikolay Platonovich’s death Olga Aleksandrovna was sorting the things and, having found his old overcoat began to sob. «She started to put the flat in order. In the passage, hanging on a peg, she saw his old summer overcoat, grey with a red lining. She took it down, pressed it to her face, and as she pressed it she sank down on the floor, her whole body convulsed by sobs, weeping, praying to someone for mercy».
Here the old overcoat is a figure of the unrealized dream, the lost hopes. The heroes loved each other, and this love had come to them suddenly, like “a sunstroke”. It is typical for Bunin’s heroes. Love in Bunin’s image arises as an inexplicable and insuperable attraction, a sudden “outbreak” of feelings; it is similar to “a sunstroke”. There are no boundaries and barriers for love — neither age, nor social, any others, but to maintain, to prolong attitudes in time is, sometimes, impossible, due to different reasons that can be either exterior circumstances or the interior ones. Sometimes the reasons are the immanent laws of love caused by its nature. Longing for love joins a couple — for an instant, while the lifetime inevitably parts it — sometimes forever. This fairy tale basically cannot have a real everyday life continuation, and it is good because of its omission.
But Nikolay Platonovich dies in spring when the full circle is not terminated. On the one hand, his death «on
the third day of Easter » is a good sign. As the first week after Easter is the Light week. During this week it is accepted to keep the holy gates of the temples wide opened, to symbolize the open gates to paradise [4, 264]. According to popular belief: everyone who will die in the Light week — by all means gets into paradise. So Nikolay Platonovich dies, as the martyr, getting on heavens. It is some kind of an award for all his pains: for the wars, he had passed; for his love for the woman who had betrayed him, for all his hard life.
But why he dies just in the brightest period of his life? Nikolay Platonovich dies not when he is disappointed in his destiny, but on the contrary: when he had found true love. He dies being joyful, happy, inspired by euphoria of love for a woman.
Their meeting with Olga Aleksandrovna did not happen accidentally «Yes, from year to year, day by day, you secretly wait for only one thing, — a happy love affair, you live only in the hope for this meeting — and all is vain .». Later Nikolay Platonovich realizes: «Yes, maybe, it is the so long-awaited happy meeting». And in fact, right at the beginning the accidence of all the events proves not to be true: «In front of it stood something like a Delicatessen shop-he happened to stop in front of its broad window», «The shop was lit up and the light drew him from the dark street with its damp and greasy pavement».
Olga Aleksandrovny’s first appearance in Nikolay Platonovicha’s life is marked by «the lighted corner». «Suddenly his comer lit up, and he saw approaching him a calm polite woman about thirty years old, with smooth black hair parted in the centre and with black eyes; she was wearing an embroidered white apron over her black dress». As in Russia a corner in the house is a place for icons, it is possible to guess, that Olga Aleksandrovna was to Nikolay Platonovichu as something unearthly, divine, as a sign from above. Thus, it is possible to say, that the foresight helped to meet the protagonists, that Destiny did not bypassed them.
Summing up our observations, it is possible to draw a conclusion, that «an old grey overcoat on a red lining» on the one hand is a figure of hopes of Olga Aleksandrovna, the heroine of the story, that did not come true. It is a figure of unrealized dream of a happy life, about continuation of that maximum love which she had experienced. On the other hand, this detail is the symbol of all life of Nikolay Platonovich because his life in Paris, faraway from his Native land, was inertial and aimless up to his meeting with Olga Aleksandrovna who appeared in his life suddenly, and may be, she had always been with him, like the red lining of his grey overcoat.
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References:
1. Bunin I. A. Collected Works: In 9 v., V. 7. - М.: fiction, 2006. - Р. 49-54. The text of the story of Bunin «In Paris» is given under this edition; boundaries of quoted pieces in clause are not specified.
2. Introduction in literary criticism. The textbook for high schools., 2 ed/., corrected./under M. Krupchanova. -М.: Onyx, 2007.
3. Glinka V. M. Russian a military suit of the XVIII - the beginnings ofXX century. An album. - L.: Artist Russia, 1988.
4. Shimanskiy G. I. Liturgics. Manual for theological seminaries. - М.: the Moscow spiritual academy, 2006.
Matushkina Darya Dmitrievna, State educational institution "Luhansk Center of Vocational Education of the State Employment Service”, PhD student
E-mail: 24Dasha@gmail.com
The typology of the city’s loci in the novel “The Abyss” by E. Pashkovskiy
Abstract: It is disclosed the content of such basic concepts of an urban literature as the “topos” and “locus”, an attempt to study the functioning of different types of loci of the city in the novel “The Abyss” by the Ukrainian writer E. Pashkovskiy. The author of the article, according to the classification of loci by V. Prokofieva, identifies artistic features of the imagination of three specific types: private, social and natural. Analysis of a topos and loci of the city in the novel proves that the city determines the mode of man’s existence, offers an opportunity to address issues of economic and social measures, provides the conditions for self-realization, but also creates a lot of problems.
Keywords: topos, locus, the city, the novel.
The problem of artistic space is one of the most discussed in the literature at the present stage of its development. There was always a constant phenomenon, referred to as researchers in different ways: as the eternal images, archetypes, stable motifs, topoi in Philology. The increased attention of linguists to the spatial images led to the emergence of different classifications and definitions. The basic concepts to denote space are “topos” and “locus” entered the Philology of philosophy and natural Sciences. The researchers used these terms in scientific text without specific semantization that, in turn, leads to their mixing and exchange.
The concept of art space began to form as a literary category since the end of nineteenth century, although it was used in ancient times. «The notion of “topos”, known since the time of Aristotle, and designated by him as the doctrine of “common places”, common reference points that serve for the presentation of topics...» writes the academic V. Prokofieva in her work “The Category of space in the artistic relation: the loci and the topoi” [3, 89]. The search for theoretical definitions of the concepts of artistic space today we are required such literary scholars-researchers as: N. Antsiferov (“The Soul of St. Petersburg”), M. Bakhtin (“The Forms of time and chronotope in the novel”), A. Bulgakova (“Topics in the
literary process”), D. Likhachev (“The Poetics of artistic time. The poetics of artistic space”), Yu. Lotman (“About the art”, “About the problem of spatial semiotics. Writings on semiotic”), V. Toporov (“The Space and the text”) and others.
The notion of “topos” is used in literary criticism to indicate the places that can be nominated as a spatial phenomenon of the natural world (city, farm, village, a particular landscape — forest, steppe, desert, field, etc.) [4, 8]. Yu. Lotman examines the function of the term “locus” in his research about the semiotics of artistic space, in which is revealed the idea of the close relationship of the hero of the works with a specific place, the locus (“The Semiosphere”) [1, 4]. The researcher divides the space into an open and a closed. It allows the linguists to interpret the term “locus” as the limited space in the unlimited. In turn, the open unlimited space is referred to as topos. The topos of the city is the specific meaning given to the city, reflected in the text of a set of urban realities, certain and localized in the spatial and temporal framework. The subject-thematic nature of spatial localization of the urban’s topos determines the correlation identified in the work sphere of life of the city with the sphere of a particular subject (industrial, cultural, etc.), under the angle of which is formed a general
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