Подрубрика: The Last Russian “Noble Nest”
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Abstract: The article carries out a holistic-systemic analysis of the main parameters of the estate topos poetics based on the contents of Bunin’s first story “The Passion” (1897) and his novel “The Life of Arsenyev” (1933). It is shown how the estate topos takes shape in the “creative laboratory of a novice writer” (S. N. Morozov). A number of constant features that will become components of the image of the estate in the writer’s mature work, in particular in his novel are revealed. Describing three estates in his first story, young Bunin essentially gives a panoramic image of the Russian estate life since the second half to the end of the 19th century in its various forms – from an ancient manorial estate and an advanced landowner’s farm to a small farm estate. The first story also makes an attempt to outline a collective image of an estate resident and show that there is something common that unites all estate people – attachment to their native nest, loyalty to their roots, and desire to preserve these roots. Based on the discoveries of his early work, Bunin builds an entire estate world in his main book. In “The Life of Arsenyev” the estate topos is voluminous and heterogeneous, represented by a whole system of vectors / spaces of different qualities, and takes on the character of a heterotopia. The article identifies and analyzes such vectors as everyday, natural, national, literary, mythopoetic, existential and sacred. With a general vision of the estate topos, each vector of its construction in the novel has its own specificity, endowed with special identification loci and its own lexical and figurative markers. These spaces of different qualities do not exist in isolation in the general chronotope of the novel, but interact according to the principle of “unmerged and inseparable.” This principle is natural for Bunin the artist. For Bunin, the estate is the optimal way to “settle in,” to arrange a place of life for a Russian person. The writer actually expresses the idea that Russia is not only a village, as one of his characters said, but also an estate. Thus, in “The Life of Arsenyev”, an entire estate cosmos is built – not only in the national aspect, but also in the general cultural and religious ones as well: the vision of Russia is presented here as metaphysically enlightened, and this light extends to the estate culture, which is not subject to historical time.
Key words: story; novel; estate topos; estate resident; heterotopia of the estate; space; locus; vector; household objects; natural; national; literary; mythopoetic; existential; sacral

Для цитирования:

Пращерук, Н. В. Гетеротопия усадьбы в прозе И. А. Бунина / Н. В. Пращерук // Philological Class. – 2023. – Vol. 28 ⋅ №3. – С. 92-102.

For citation

Prashcheruk, N. V. (2023). Heterotopia of the Estate in I. A. Bunin’s Prose. In Philological Class. 2023. Vol. 28 ⋅ №3. P. 92-102.

About the author(s) :

Natalia V. Prashcheruk  

Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B. N. Yeltsin

(Ekaterinburg, Russia) 

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4407-5293

Publication Timeline:

Date of receipt: 14.09.2023; date of publication: 31.10.2023

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