Article

Name: Specifics of the detective plot in the novel “Radin” by Lena Eltang

Authors: Elena A. Poleva, Irina A. Klyuchnik

Tomsk State Pedagogical University, Tomsk, Russian Federation

In the section Study of literature

Abstract:

This paper reveals the unique features of the detective plot as it unfolds in the novel “Radin” authored by Lena Eltang. The features of narration, including the use of the “unreliable” narrator, polyphony, parallelism of voices, and lack of dialogue, as well as the motives of twilight/darkness, non-meeting, lateness, omission, mistakes, duality and duplicity, and other possibilities are considered. Also, the role of these specific features and their role in the development of the detective plot is elucidated. Attention is given to the image of Radin and his divergence from the traditional detective, with commentary on the distinctive character system that does not conform to the classical detective genre (numerous crimes and criminals, complex identity of characters as both criminals and victims). The quest for the disappeared man leads to an investigation into the forgery of artworks, further complicating the detective plot. This plot can be interpreted as a framework for posing questions vital to modernist literature, such as genuineness and imitation, or illusion and reality, the limits of an artist’s freedom, and others. The detective intrigue is found to be both externally focused on investigating an incomprehensible reality and internally concentrated on the “detective’s” introspective understanding. Metaphors of puzzle completion, expanding the hermeneutic circle, and apprehending the object via a structure of deceptive reflections (perceptive consciousnesses) are used to understand the detective narrative as it unfolds. The paper questions the aesthetic nature of the novel, suggesting that the poetics of “Radin” correspond more with modernism rather than postmodernism.

Keywords: detective intrigue, 21st century modernism, Lena Eltang, the image of a detective writer

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