Article

Name: Infantile discourse in the prose of Dmitri Gorchev

Authors: Galina N. Boeva

St. Petersburg State University of Industrial Technology and Design, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation

In the section Study of literature

Abstract:

The work of Dmitri Gorchev is regarded as a phenomenon genetically related to “electronic literature.” This paper deals with his two books: Zhizn’ bez Karlo: Muzyka dlya ekzal’tirovannykh startsev (Life without Carlo: Music for exalted elders) (2010) and Ya ne lyublyu Pushkina: Iz Zhivogo Zhurnala (I don’t love Pushkin: From the LiveJournal) (2013), both based on the author’s blog in the Live Journal. Both books reveal a plot unity, defined by an infantile worldview of an autobiographical hero, whose reception is indistinguishable from the author’s. The central image of the first book, Pinocchio, becomes the embodiment of freedom and childhood for the author. The image of Pushkin in the second book is associated with the adult world. The Soviet childhood evokes ambivalent feelings in the protagonist: nostalgia and traumatic experience. The unity and artistic originality of Gorchev’s books are ensured by the childish, infantile view of the world of the autobiographical protagonist and his life-creating strategies of escapism, as well as by the density of the allusive layer dating back to the children’s reading and animation. The childish, naive view of the author defines his poetics that is close to primitivism. Nowadays, the Internet has become a breeding ground for the emerging phenomena of primitive art, combining folklore/mythological images with the images of mass culture and high culture. The images of Pinocchio and other characters of children’s books and cartoons used by Gorchev have become archetypes of the new mythology of the “mass” / post-Soviet person.

Keywords: D. A. Gorchev, blog, LiveJournal, infantile discourse, primitivism

Bibliography:

Abasheva M. P., Maksimova T. O. Blog-literatura kak fenomen: opyty Evgeniya Grishkovtsa [Blog-literature as a phenomenon: the experiments of Eugenia Grishkovets]. Perm University Herald. Russian and Foreign Philology. 2017, vol. 9, iss. 4, pp. 103–112.

Davydov D. M. Ot primitiva k primitivizmu i naoborot (russkaya naivnaya poeziya XX v.) [From primitive to primitive and vice versa (Russian naive poetry of the 20th century)]. Arion. Zhurnal poezii. 2000, no. 4, pp. 81–95.

Davydov D. M. Russkaya naivnaya i primitivistskaya poeziya: genezis, evolyuciya. Poetika [Russian naive and primitive poetry: genesis, evolution, poetics]. Abstract of Cand. philol. sci. diss. Samara, 2004, 25 p.

Gorchev D. A. Ya ne lyublyu Pushkina: Iz Zhivogo Zhurnala [I do not like Pushkin: (from the Living Journal)]. Moscow, AST, 2013, 414 p.

Gorchev D. Trinadtsat’ rubley: Rasskazy, skazki, p’esy [Thirteen rubles: Stories, fairy tales, plays]. St. Petersburg, Gelikon Plyus, 2007, 232 p.

Gorchev D. Zhizn’ bez Karlo: Muzyka dlya ekzal’tirovannykh startsev [Life without Carlo: Music for exalted elders]. Moscow, AST; St. Petersburg, Astrel’-St. Petersburg, 2010, 283 p.

Hanzen-Leve O. A. Intermedial’nost’ v russkoy kul’ture: ot simvolizma k avangardu [Intermediality in Russian culture: from symbolism to vanguard]. D. Kraft, R. Mikhaylov, I. Chubarov (Eds.). Moscow, RSUH, 2016, 504 p.

Leukhina A. V. Literaturnyy primitivizm: estetika i poetika [Literary primitive: aesthetics and poetry]. Abstract of Cand. philol. sci. diss. Samara, 2010, 16 p.

Lotman Yu. M. O soderzhanii i strukture ponyatiya “khudozhestvennaya literature” [On the content and structure of the concept of “artistic literature”]. In: Lotman Yu. M. Izbrannye stat’i: V 3 t. [Selected articles: in 3 vols.]. Tallinn, Aleksandra, 1992, vol. 1, pp. 203–216.

Mayzel’ E. Zhivoy Zhurnal slovami pisateley [Living Journal with the words of writers]. Russian Journal. 2003, iss. 23. URL: https://old.russ.ru/krug/20031219_ em.html (accessed: 28.04.2020).

Merkushov S. V. Motiv poteri rassudka kak bazovyy instrument absurdistiki D. A. Gorcheva [Motive of loss of reason as a basic tool of D. A. Gorchev’s absurd]. Philological Sciences. Issues of Theory and Practice. 2019, vol. 12, iss. 10, pp. 30–34.

Prokof’ev V. N. O trekh urovnyakh khudozhestvennoy kul’tury Novogo i Noveyshego vremeni (k probleme primitiva v izobrazitel’nykh iskusstvakh) [On the three levels of artistic culture of the New and Modern Time (to the problem of primitive in the fine arts)]. In: Primitiv i ego mesto v khudozhestvennoy kul'ture Novogo i Noveyshego vremeni [Primitive and its place in the artistic culture of the New and Modern Time]. Moscow, Nauka, 1983, pp. 6–28.

Sarin L. Blogoliteratura kak novaya literaturnaya forma i izdatel’skaya strategiya [Blogolitera as a new literary form and publishing strategy]. Prepodavatel XXI vek. 2016, no. 3, pp. 433–440.

Silantev I. V. Printsip nezavershennosti v tvorchestve Dmitriya Gorcheva [The principle of incomplete work by Dmitry Gorchev]. Siberian Journal of Philology. 2017, no. 4, pp. 125–134.