Article

Name: Master – Prophet – Wisdom in the Story by A. Bitov «Man in the Landscape»

Authors: N. V. Kovtun

Krasnoyarsk State Pedagogical University Krasnoyarsk, Russian Federation

In the section Study of literature

Abstract: The purpose of the paper is the analysis of the storyline about searching and finding the truth in the landmark novel by A. Bitov «Man in the Landscape» (1983), which became a part of the novel-journey «The Catechumen». The literary work, however, is regarded as quite self-sufficient one, that predetermined a number of themes, characters and narrative strategies, which became the key ones for the Russian literature at the turn of 20th – 21st centuries. It is not so much about the creative techniques, as about addressing the main theme of A. Bitov’s work «Master-Prophet Sophia Wisdom», the personality’s ascent to the comprehension of their role in the universe, its limitations by the scope of the landscape. The story is a kind of metatext of the world culture, a hermeneutic mystery that the character-mystic, a seeker of truth is unravelling, followed by the dedicated one – the artist-restorer, who cleans the dust of ages from the pristine landscape of existence. The path of the author-narrator holds together various images, created in the style of still frame, ironically deployed towards the images of paradise, purgatory and hell. Each of the topos is abated, highlighted by the literary details. The divine landscape is discussed in the same line with the great paintings of the artists-geniuses, the Creator is perceived as a colleague / painter, not the categories of good and evil, but those of beauty and action become significant for the characters’ evaluation, that refers to the poetics of V. Nabokov and M. Bulgakov, that are significant in the text. The man is completed by the Creator already in the finished landscape, a personality destination is to evaluate the divine creation, to convey its perfection, and this is what the Master does. The destiny of the Genius, eager to unravel the original purpose of the universe is theomachy, insanity and death; he strives to go beyond the frame to the space of the unnamed, the «black hole» of no return. A. Bitov warns «the proud man», the progressist who is eager to experience, but not to comprehend the Beauty-Wisdom. As a result of the study, the structure of the story and the characters’ functions («the Interpreter», the Mystic, the Observer, the Saboteur) have been analyzed. It has been proved that the mythologeme about searching and finding the truth form the foundation of the literary work. A new narrative strategy becomes more significant when the movement of the author’s thoughts itself, embodied through the journey of the characters-twins, rather than the scenic images that they hold together. This narrative strategy became one of the basic in the metaprose of the 1990s. It can be concluded that the process of the text-landscape creation is perceived as an analogue of spiritual resurrection. Only using the typewriter the author-narrator becomes equal to himself, but the reality reflected in the focus of art remains forever, it becomes a mirror that reflects the greatness of the divine landscape.

Keywords: a. bitov, «man in the landscape», the search for truth, metaprose

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