Article

Name: «DR. POWDERPILL» BY K. I. CHUKOVSKY: THE SEARCH FOR THE LOST GARDEN

Authors: F. V. Kuvshinov

Lipetsk Institute of Cooperation (regional subsidiary) BUKEP, Lipetsk, Russian Federation

In the section

Abstract: The reproduction of the Soviet myth of the USSR as a new Eden in a fairy tale K. Chukovsky «Dr. Powderpill» (1936) is discussed in this article. The writer resorts to stable patterns (savagery, backwardness, aggression, naive, exotic) following the tradition of quazi-African travelogue. He shows Africa, relying on someone else's literary experience (i.e. H. Lofting). However, Chukovsky did not try to discredit African Paradise but to assert the thought in the young readers’ minds that the true paradise was located in the Soviet Union. Chukovsky opinion is not merely an example of complimentarity in the direction of the author Soviet power: the writer opened the flight motif of an imaginary Paradise (Africa) in a real paradise (Russia) in the «Crocodile» (1915). Therefore, Chukovsky easily created the work corresponding to the ideological goals of the USSR as part of the problem of educating the new Soviet man.

Keywords: africa, travelogue, travel literature, k. i. chukovsky, children's literature, myth, the soviet union (the ussr), ideology

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