Article

Name: On the Issue of Lyrical Compositions by I. A. Bunin “The Life of Arseniev” and “Eugene Onegin”

Authors: Elena V. Kapinos

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

In the section I. A. Bunin: plot, motive, intertext

Abstract:

The purpose of this article is to describe I. Bunin’s novel “The Life of Arseniev” as a lyrical structure. Using the method of motif analysis, numerous series of thematic, plot, motivic repeats were revealed in the text. Motivic repeats in prose text are a kind of analogue of rhyme in poetry, they increase the structure and coherence of the text, and in addition, the chapters of Bunin’s novel have, like stanzas in a poetic work, a closed look. Motivic reprise in Bunin’s lyrical prose prevails over the plot logic, over the development of the plot, which is especially clearly traced in the endings of the chapters and bools of the novel. Before the novel was published as a separate book, Bunin published it chapter by chapter. Similarly, first chapter by chapter, and then as a separate book, Pushkin published “Onegin”. This method of publication is due to the lyrical composition of the texts, which allows changing the way of arranging its individual parts and even including them in the text or excluding them from it.

Thus, in “Onegin”, the eighth chapter was separated from the seven previous chapters, and the Book V, originally published as an independent volume under the title “Lika”, was also included in the final text of “The Life of Arseniev”.

The originally planned sequel did not follow. The Book V, which ultimately completed Bunin’s novel, does not seem alien to it: to some extent, it is autonomous, but its lyricism and first-person narration organically connect it with the other books.

Lika’s love and death puts an end to Bunin’s coming-of-age novel, it is complete. But the image of the author, the writer of this novel, contains incompleteness. And this repeats “Onegin”, where the image of unfinished existence is very clearly revealed.

Keywords: I. A. Bunin, “The Life of Arseniev”, A. S. Pushkin, “Eugene Onegin”, lyrical structure, composition, motif, motivic repeats, plot repeats, chapter edition, book edition, completeness/incompleteness

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