Article

Name: “Yakutia” by A. E. Stroganov. Artistic deconstruction of the mythological idyll

Authors: I. V. Silantev, Yu. V. Shatin

Institute of Philology SB RAS, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation

In the section Study of literature

Abstract: The problem of idyllic space occupies an important place in the mythopoetics of the Siberian text and can rightfully be considered as one of the dominant mythologemes in the culture and literature of the peoples of Siberia. The implementation of this mythologeme is often the mythopoetic topos of Belovodye. Belovodye attracted the attention of writers of the past two centuries, including Siberian authors A. E. Novoselov, M. Plotnikov, and others. The change in the paradigm of realistic writing with postmodern writing, which took place at the turn of the 20th – 21st centuries, allows taking a different look at the mythological idyll to discover other ways of its artistic deconstruction. The play “Yakutia” by Altai playwright A. E. Stroganov is considered as an example of deconstruction of the idyllic myth of the postmodern era. Intended as an idyll of desolation, cold, and asceticism, finally, Yakutia miraculously turns into a country of joy, light and, warmth, i.e., it becomes the opposite of the idyll, more consistent with the traditional form of typification. In the context of postmodernism, an appeal to the idyll shows that it has the features opposite to the realistic interpretation. The idea of collective happiness is clearly replaced by the idea of individual freedom of a single person, his existence. At the same time, the main, archetypal features of the transformed world turn out to be very similar to the original prototype: the world of evil left by the heroes opens the way not for an idyll but for a new experience of comprehending the universe.

Keywords: mythopoetics, the myth of Belovodye, Siberian literature, A. E. Stroganov, the play “Yakutia”

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