The estate topos in B. K. Zaytsev’s novel The Golden Pattern: originality of implementation and reception of L. N. Tolstoy’s prose
https://doi.org/10.22394/2412-9410-2024-10-1-207-223
Abstract
The purpose of this article is to analyze the originality of the estate topos and its role in the novel The Golden Pattern, and to identify some significant parallels in the depiction of estate space by Tolstoy and Zaytsev. Our tasks include assessing the typology and characteristics of estates in the artistic world of Zaytsev’s novel, clarifying the writer’s attitude to the form of estate life in the past and to the possibility and significance of preserving the memory of it. The estate topos plays an important role in Zaytsev’s novel: it organizes its chronotope, helps the writer lay out the characters’ path to an awareness of the value of home and family. We show that the writer created the psychological portrait and behavioral characteristics of the protagonist of The Golden Pattern with the image of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina as a reference point. Thanks to a focus on Tolstoy’s discoveries, Zaytsev implements in the artistic world of his novel the motif of disregard for the land, the motif of managing the estate, the opposition of the natural and the machine. At the same time, he creatively uses non-plot connections, which his predecessor developed in the novel Anna Karenina and a number of other works, and which are based on a multi-level interlinkage of various elements of artistic representation.
Keywords
L. N. Tolstoy,
B. K. Zaytsev,
estate topos,
reception,
Russian classics,
gentry culture,
family estates,
estate typology,
economy,
chronotope
Supporting agencies: This study was carried out in the IWL RAS with support from Russian Science Foundation grant No. 22-18-00051, https://rscf.ru/project/22-18-00051.
About the Author
V. G. Andreeva
A. M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences Russia
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Valeria G. Andreeva, Dr. Sci. (Philology) Leading Research Fellow
121069, Moscow, Povarskaya Str., 25a
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Review
For citations:
Andreeva V.G. The estate topos in B. K. Zaytsev’s novel The Golden Pattern: originality of implementation and reception of L. N. Tolstoy’s prose. Shagi / Steps. 2024;10(1):207-223. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.22394/2412-9410-2024-10-1-207-223
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