Institute of Philology of the Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences
Monuments of Folklore Siberian Journal of Philology Critique and Semiotics
Yazyki i fol’klor korennykh narodov Sibiri Syuzhetologiya i Syuzhetografiya
Institute of Philology of
the Siberian Branch of
Russian Academy of Sciences
По-русски
DOI: 10.25205/2410-7883
Roskomnadzor certificate number Эл № ФС 77-84792 
 
Syuzhetologiya i Syuzhetografiya
По-русски
Archive
Editorial board
Submission Requirements
Process for Submission & Publication
Our ethical principles
Search:

Author:

and/or Keyword:

Editorial Office Address: Institute of Philology of the Siberian Branch of the RAS. 8 Nikolaeva St, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russian Federation; zhurnal.syuzhet@yandex.ru +7-(383)-330-47-72

Article

Name: To the History of Russian Myth of the Great Sinner: Breakers of the Fifth Commandment in the Soviet Novel of the 1970s (F. Abramov, V. Tendryakov, I. Grekova)

Authors: Margarita N. Klimova

Tomsk State University, Research Library, Tomsk, Russian Federation

In the section Literary Life of the Plot

Issue 2, 2019Pages 106-119
UDK: 821.161.1DOI: 10.25205/2410-7883-2019-2-106-119

Abstract: A meta-story of “repentance and salvation of a great sinner” became world-famous as part of the Christian ethical doctrine, and was enshrined in the sacrament of confession. For a number of reasons it lost its relevance in the West by the beginning of the New Age, but gained a second life in Russia as one of the myths of national consciousness. The Russian adaptations of the great sinner myth are characterized by a “sobornyi” approach to a problem of personal guilt and redemption, as well as fixation on open endings. The myth’s motifs and variations are widely represented in Russian classical literature works, as well as Soviet writers’ works. The article is devoted to one of the variants of existence of the myth in the Soviet period – a history of a breaker of the fifth commandment (on filial piety) on the example of three novels of the 1970s. “A Trip to the Past” by F. Abramov (1974), which was published in the years of perestroika, is one of the first attempts at a truthful depiction of collectivization. The main character of this little novella, plunging into the memories, overestimates the people and events of his youth, but betrayal of his father, who was declared as “the enemy of the people”, he could redeem only at the cost of his own life. V. Tendryakov’s suspenseful novel “Payback” (1979) is devoted to investigation of a serious crime – patricide committed by a teenager, but a traditional form of detective narration is used in it to raise topical ethical issues of modern life. The study of the causes and background of the private tragedy of the Karyakins family reveals the weak points of interaction between the individual and society, the family and the state, as well as the definition of permissible limits for active resistance to evil. I. Grekova’s “The Widow’s Steamer” (1979) is a vivid example of “female prose”. It tells about the life of the inhabitants of a Moscow communal apartment during several decades. One of the main plotlines of the story is dramatic relationship between mother and son in the Gromov’s family. Cruel youthful maximalism and egocentrism on the one hand, and “bondage of maternal love” on the other, erect a wall of estrangement between once close people, which cannot overcome even belated repentance of the son. Diverse in a creative manner stories bring together interest of their authors to the recent pages of Soviet history, an active use of mythologems of Russian and world culture, as well as the tragical rendition of the immortal parable of the prodigal son.

Keywords: Christianity and literature, national myths, Russian literature, Soviet literature, Christian ethics, family relations

Bibliography:

Abramov F. Poezdka v proshloe: Povest’ [A trip to the past: a tale]. Novyy mir, 1989, no. 5, p. 5–20. (in Russ.)

Averintsev S. S. K istolkovaniyu simvoliki mifa ob Edipe [On the interpretation of the symbolism of the myth of Oedipus]. In: Antichnost’ i sovremennost’: k 80-letiyu F. A. Piotrovskogo [Antiquity and modernity: on the 80th anniversary of F. A. Piotrovsky]. Moscow, 1972, p. 89–102. (in Russ.)

Gachev G. D. Russkaya duma: Portretyrusskikhmysliteley [Russian thought: Portraits of Russian thinkers]. Moscow, 1991. (in Russ.)

Grekova I. Vdoviy parokhod: Izbrannoe [The Widow’s Steamer: selected stories]. Moscow, 1998. (in Russ.)

Klimova M. N. «Pokayanie i spasenie velikogo greshnika» kak russkiy natsional'nyy mif: k postanovke problemy [“Repentance and the salvation of the great sinner” as a Russian national myth: To the statement of the problem]. In: Dukhovnaya kul'tura i obshchestvennaya mysl' v Rossii v literaturnykh i istoricheskikh pamyatnikakh XVI–XX vv. [Spiritual culture and social thought in Russia in the literary and historical monuments of the 16th – 20th centuries]. Novosibirsk, 2016, p. 142–157. (in Russ.)

Klimova M. N. Iz istorii «Edipova syuzheta» v russkoy literature [From the story of “Oedipus plot” in Russian literature]. Tomsk State Pedagogical University Bulletin. Humanities (Philology), 2006, iss. 8 (59), p. 60–66. (in Russ.)

Klimova M. N. Ot protopopa Avvakuma do Fedora Abramova: Zhitiya «greshnykh svyatykh» v russkoy literature [From Archpriest Avvakum to Fyodor Abramov: Lives of “sinful saints” in Russian literature]. Moscow, 2010. (in Russ.)

Klimova M. N. Tyuremno-lagernyy lokus russkoy literatury v kontekste mifa o velikom greshnike [Prison camp locus of Russian literature in the context of the myth about the great sinner]. In: Vstrechi i dialogi v smyslovom pole kul'tury: Materialy Vtorykh i Tret'ikh kul'turologi- cheskikh chteniy (Chernoluch'e, fevral' 2012g., Tara, oktyabr' 2012 g.) [Meetings and dialogues in the semantic field of culture: Materials of the Second and Third Cultural Studies (Cherno- luchye, February 2012, Tara, October 2012)]. Omsk, 2013, p. 48–62. (in Russ.)

Klimova M. N. Velikiy kanon Andreya Kritskogo kak istochnik ego apokrificheskogo zhitiya [The great canon of Andrei of Crete as the source of his apocryphal life]. In: Obshchestven- noe soznanie naseleniya Rossii po otechestvennym narrativnym istochnikam XVI–XX vv. [Public consciousness of the Russian population from Russian narrative sources of the 16th – 20th centuries]. Novosibirsk, 2006, p. 107–117. (in Russ.)

Krutikova-Abramova L. V poiskakh istiny [In search of truth]. Novyy mir, 1989, no. 5, p. 20–38. (in Russ.)

Pushkin A. S. Sobr. soch [Collected works]. In 2 vols. Moscow, 1980, vol. 1. (in Russ.)

Tendryakov F. Rasplata: Povest' [Payback: a tale]. Moscow, 1982. (in Russ.)

Institute of Philology
Nikolaeva st., 8, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russian Federation
+7-383-330-15-18, ifl@philology.nsc.ru
© Institute of Philology