Article

Name: Plot Situation of «a Girl and an Elephant» in Russian Prose of the First Third of the XX Century

Authors: Maroshi V. V.

In the section Literary Life of the Plot

Abstract: The article considers the plot situation, which is linked with the artistic spaces of zoo and apartment. This is a specific variant of the archetypal situation «meekest animal and child» and the specific situation of the beginning of XX century «communication of the child and animal in the zoo», which in Russian literature of the first third of the XX century can be presented in other variations – children and elephant, the boy and the elephant, a girl and a seal. Its main protagonists become the girl and the elephant, and a content – a communication of a girl with an elephant. The richness of interaction supported by the contrast of the image respectively as a very small and great, male and female. Description of the elephant is also built on the contrast between the small and large, gentle and strong. A system of characters istypical for family characters (mom, dad, girl) and «family» shape of elephant. The event is that the girl comes with parents in a menagerie, or elephant leads to a sick girl to the house the owner of the menagerie. Coming into contact with a girl, elephant always, like all animals in the zoo, anthropomorphized, is represented by a narrator or perceived girl like animal with humanproperties. Girl can become relevant zoomorphic features. After the events of communication with the elephant sick girl is recovering or, on the contrary, in the home begins to behave inan unnatural manner, losing its natural charm. Elephant as a character is associated in the poetic text, and at the level of narrative sequence motifs inspired by a dream that article explains the rhyme «sleep – elephant» («son – slon» in Russian) and the special relationship of the elephant with an imaginary and an unconscious.

Keywords: elephant, girl, family, plot situation, menagerie, the anthromorphization.

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