Article

Name: Androgynous motives in the novel “Pobeg Kumaniki” (“Bramble Sprout”) by Lena Eltang

Authors: E. A. Poleva

Tomsk State Pedagogical University, Tomsk, Russian Federation

In the section Study of literature

Abstract: The novel “Pobeg Kumaniki” (“Bramble Sprout”) by Lena Eltang fits in with traditions of modernism, where the images of the androgyny are related to the problem of finding and obtaining “intelligible integrity.” The paper analyzes the methods of embodying androgynous motives (auto-associative intertextuality, temporal and gender variability of perception of reality, Moras’ representation of himself as a woman, the homosexual intention of the hero, the relationship of duality with different-sex characters, etc.). The novel reveals the androgyny semantics in the context of the split Self and the search for the fundamental basis that would unite the parts into a whole. Androgynous motives correlate with the themes of creativity and love. It is due to the desire to compensate for the brother’s dislike and parting with him that Moras creates the text. The absence of love is one of the novel’s central manifestations of the splinter motif (disintegration, separation) that is antonymous to androgyny. The storylines of the two characters (Forge and Moras) test different ways of achieving integrity. Two vectors of movement towards wholeness are revealed: one towards complexity, multidimensionality (combining the diversity of the world and the Self in consciousness and text) and one towards simplification (the disappearance of fragmentation in the state of the embryo, representing pure potency). However, all the methods only manifest the limitations of human capabilities. Androgyny is still an ideal not to be realized during earthly existence. Therefore, the Central character disappears in the finale.

Keywords: Lena Eltang, modernism, literature of Russian emigration, motif, androgyne, self- identification

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