Article

Name: The image of the double in the novels “The Gray Suit” by Vasily Andreev and “Someone Else’s Life” by Elena Dolgopyat: exploring the issue of textual homonymy

Authors: Maria A. Chernyak

Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation

In the section Study of literature

Abstract:

The paper compares the novels “The Grey Suit” (1929) by Vasily Andreev and “Someone Else’s Life” (2012) by Elena Dolgopyat. Not only does this comparison enable exploring textual homonymy, a term introduced by Tomas Venclova to refer to the similarity of texts with distinct internal semiotic structures, but it also highlights the resemblance between the literary periods of the 1920s and 2020s. The works addressing the theme of duality were created with a time gap of almost a hundred years. The convergence of post-revolutionary literature and post-Soviet literature gives rise to a striking parallelism, as their texts harmoniously rhyme and weave together, forming a distinct fabric of literary context. The theme of duality, the un-solvable contradiction of human nature, and the subsequent transformation of this theme serve to establish a closer connection between the works of Andreev and Dolgopyat. The twin models serve as evident and prevalent frameworks of cultural self-awareness during various stages of its evolution. The paper indicates that Andreev and Dolgopyat are representative of the epochs characterized by literary collapse and transition. Through their works, the writers express their thoughts on both the duality of their contemporary reality and the universal concept of duality. Consequently, the paper presents evidence that Andreev’s narrative, which was “given back” to the reader in 1989 but has received minimal analysis, enriches the body of texts exploring the “Yesenin myth” and the concept of duality.

Keywords: Russian prose of the 1920s, modern literature, Vas. Andreev, E. Dolgopyat, the double, transitional epochs, textual homonymy

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