Article

Name: The Novel by Konstantin Sergienko “Ksenia”: Reading Contexts

Authors: Oleg N. Vladimirov

Kuzbass Humanitarian Pedagogical Institute of Kemerovo State University, Novokuznetsk, Russian Federation

In the section Literary Life of the Plot

Abstract:

Sergienko’s novel “Kseniaˮ (“Ксенияˮ), which addresses the events of the Time of Troubles, is considered in such interrelated contexts as the traditions of European and Russian historical prose, the preceding versions of the plot about False Dmitry, the work of the writer and his contemporaries. These readings of the book do not cancel its in-text analysis.The traditional plot-forming motives of the historical novel, assimilated and developed in “Ksenia”, include the wanderings and fate of a private person in a crisis era. In accordance with this tradition, the fictional character Mikhail Turenev is equated in the book with the real figures of that era.

He, like Princess Ksenia, is brought to the epilogue by the author. The central place of the heroine in the system of characters is emphasized by both the title of the book and the ring composition – from the birth of Ksenia and naming her by this name to the announcement by Prince Dmitry Pozharsky of the name of his daughter in honor of Princess Ksenia. According to the place and role in the development of the plot, the Impostor is comparable to Turenev and Ksenia, and not with Shuisky, like Sumarokov, not with Boris Godunov, as in Pushkin’s tragedy. The illusory presence of False Dmitry in history is enhanced by his disorder, reverse gradation, and other techniques.

The influence of Pushkin’s tragedy is noticeable, in particular, in the end-to-end character Pronka: he has the same role at the end of the book as the fool in “Boris Godunovˮ – to be the “voice of the peopleˮ. The love triangle formed by Ksenia, the antipodes Turenev and False Dmitry, resembles the arrangement of their respective characters in “Dimitri the Impostor” (“Димитрий Самозванецˮ), “The Captain’s Daughterˮ (“Капитанская дочкаˮ), “Prince Serebryanyˮ (“Князь Серебряныйˮ).

The complex of plot-forming motives in the novel, which is stable in historical novelistics and in Sergienko’s work, is complicated by original motives. These are the motives of impracticable plans, the “crossingˮ of the paths of the heroes as manifestations of the determinism they realize, the motives of love and creativity. Mutual love, creation, participation in the defense of the Fatherland overcomes the destructive element of life, the unrealization of plans and the harmony sought by the heroes of the novel is achieved. Another motif is correlated with these motives – peace in different meanings, especially in its understanding as balance in nature, which should be the basis of a harmonious human existence in the world.

The high degree of rapprochement between the writer and his protagonists reminds of the works of Sergienko’s contemporaries, whose heroes accept an absurd reality and find the strength to resist it.

In the novel “Kseniaˮ, starting from previous works about the Russian crisis of the early 17th century and taking into account the traditions of historical prose and knowledge about the catastrophic experience of the 20th century, the writer offers his view on the cause-and-effect relationships of the events of the Time of Troubles.

Keywords: K. Sergienko, “Ksenia”, historical novel, intertextual connections, plot, motive

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Vladimirov O. N. Plot-Forming Motives in the Books of K. Sergienko. Studies in Theory of Literary Plot and Narratology, 2021, no. 2, pp. 103–115. (in Russ.) DOI 10.25205/2410-7883-2021-2-103-115