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"REMEMBER MY LAST THREE WORDS": TO THE QUESTION OF STRUCTURE OF TURGENEV’S NOVEL FINALS
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- Рубрика: TO THE 200th ANNIVERSARY OF I. S. TURGENEV
- Article: PDF
DOI: 10.26710/fk18-03-04
Abstract: The article deals with the distinctive feature of Turgenev’s novel finals, in which the writer always highlights the
«final point» that is significant in the artistic, structural and semantic sense. This «point» is, as a rule, a direct or hidden quotation
that goes back to a well-known book source, a biblical text or the word of a prayer. They can be located both at the very end of the
text, and represent a speech structure, which emphasizes the concluding paragraphs of the novel. Thanks to this organization of finals, Turgenev’s novels acquire a special semantic depth and versatility, since the recognizable final phrases carry a load of «alien»
text and meaning, which allows the writer to complete a novel narrative that does not straighten out all the contradictions with a point
but a problem ellipsis. And the reader is faced with the necessity of «re-reading» the text, in order to comprehend it in a view of those
symbolic meanings that are focused in the «final point» of the epilogue. The article presents significant final references to the Bible
and the prayer word in the novels «Rudin» and «Fathers and Sons». In the first case we are talking about the verse from the «Gospel
of Matthew» about the Son of Man, which has no place to lay his head, in the second — about the funeral prayer «With the holy
peace», which ends the story of Bazarov. Also considered are quotations from Dante’s works in the novel «A Nest of Gentry», referring the reader to the third song of «Hell», reminiscences from the second part of Goethe’s «Faust» — in the novel «On the Eve»
when it comes to the «sign» of Helen. In the finals of the novels «Fathers and Sons» and «Smoke» reminiscences from Pushkin are
considered: well-known elegiac lines about «indifferent nature» and the «embittered mind» (from the novel «Eugene Onegin») respectively. The semantic links between the final pages of the novel «Virgin Soil» and actual journalism are revealed, where Turgenev’s heroes speak of «unnamed Russia» and «nameless» people. This feature of the finals is regarded by the author of the article as
a distinguishing feature of Turgenev’s novel.
Key words: NOVELS; EPILOGUES; FINALES; QUOTES; ALLUSIONS; WRITING; RUSSIAN WRITERS
For citation
Belyaeva, I. A. "Remember my last three words": to the question of structure of Turgenev’s novel finals / I. A. Belyaeva. In Philological Class. 2018. №3 (53). P. 25-32. DOI 10.26710/fk18-03-04 .