Article

Name: Motive of Early Lyric and Philosophical Stories by A. Platonov

Authors: Elena N. Proskurina

Institute of Philology of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation

Abstract:

The article examines the motivational corpus of early lyric and philosophical stories by A. Platonov. The author himself calls them “poems” in his correspondence with his future wife. It is shown that the source of ontological tragedy for the author and his heroes is the destroyed unity of the universe. This maxim organizes the motivational system of the analyzed works. The main motives are longing, thirst for the impossible, the heroes’ love for distant stars and clouds. The intonational features of the stories put forward the main character’s inner position, the sphere of his experiences, to the main place. This turns him into a lyrical hero. From the point of view of the young author and his auto-characters, overcoming the separation from the sky can be achieved through “rebellion against the universe”. Here there is a clash of two opposites: love for the world and hatred for existing existence. This explains the opposite direction of the motivational system in the entire cycle of stories and within each work. At the genre level, this conflict is expressed through the clash of utopia with dystopia. Involvement in the analysis of letters, journalism, poetry of Platonov strengthens the argumentation of the author`s naming of the analyzed works of poems.

Keywords: early prose of A. Platonov, motive, utopia, dystopia, prose poem

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