They played screw three times a week: on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays; Sunday was very convenient for playing, but it had to be left to all sorts of chance: the arrival of strangers, the theater, and therefore it was considered the most boring day of the week. However, in the summer, at the dacha, they played on Sundays. They were placed like this: the fat and hot Maslennikov played with Yakov Ivanovich, and Evpraksiya Vasilyevna played with her gloomy brother, Prokopiy Vasilyevich. This distribution was established a long time ago, about six years ago, and Evpraxia Vasilievna insisted on it. The fact is that it was of no interest to her and her brother to play separately, against each other, since in this case the gain of one was the loss of the other, and in the final result they did not win or lose. And although in monetary terms the game was insignificant and Evpraxia Vasilievna and her brother did not need money, she could not understand the pleasure of playing for the sake of the game and was happy when she won. She put the money she won separately, in a piggy bank, and it seemed to her much more important and more expensive than those large credit cards that she had to pay for an expensive apartment and issue for housekeeping. For the game they gathered at Prokopiy Vasilievich's, since in the entire vast apartment only he and his sister lived - there was also a large White cat, but he always slept on an armchair - and the silence necessary for studying reigned in the rooms. Eupraxia Vasilievna's brother was a widow: he lost his wife in the second year after the wedding and spent two whole months after that in a mental hospital; she herself was unmarried, although she once had an affair with a student. No one knew, and she seemed to have forgotten why she did not have to marry her student, but every year, when the usual appeal for help to needy students appeared, she sent to the committee a neatly folded hundred-ruble piece of paper “from an unknown person.” In terms of age, she was the youngest of the players: she was forty-three years old.
At first, when the division into pairs was created, the eldest of the players, Maslennikov, was especially dissatisfied with it. He was indignant that he would constantly have to deal with Yakov Ivanovich, that is, in other words, give up the dream of a big, trumpless helmet. And in general, she and her partner were completely unsuited to each other. Yakov Ivanovich was a small, dry old man, who wore a welded frock coat and trousers winter and summer, silent and stern. He always appeared exactly at eight o'clock, not a minute earlier or later, and immediately took the chalk with dry fingers, on one of which a large diamond ring walked freely. But the most terrible thing for Maslennikov about his partner was that he never played more than four, even when he had a big and sure game in his hands. One day it happened that as Yakov Ivanovich began to move from the deuce, he moved away all the way to the ace, taking all thirteen tricks. Maslennikov angrily threw his cards on the table, and the gray-haired old man calmly collected them and wrote down for the game, as many as four.
But why didn't you play the grand slam? - Nikolai Dmitrievich (that was Maslennikov’s name) cried out.
“I never play more than four,” the old man answered dryly and instructively remarked: “You never know what might happen.”
Nikolai Dmitrievich could not convince him. He himself always took risks and, since the card did not suit him, he constantly lost, but did not despair and thought that he would be able to win back next time. Gradually they got used to their position and did not interfere with each other: Nikolai Dmitrievich took risks, and the old man calmly recorded the loss and appointed a game at four.
This is how they played summer and winter, spring and autumn. The decrepit world obediently bore the heavy yoke of endless existence and either blushed with blood or shed tears, announcing its path through space with the groans of the sick, hungry and offended. Nikolai Dmitrievich brought faint echoes of this alarming and alien life with him. He was sometimes late and entered at a time when everyone was already sitting at the laid out table and the cards stood out like a pink fan on its green surface.
Nikolai Dmitrievich, red-cheeked, smelling fresh air, hastily took his place opposite Yakov Ivanovich, apologized and said:
There are so many people walking on the boulevard. So they go, so they go...
Eupraxia Vasilievna considered herself obliged, as a hostess, not to notice the oddities of her guests. Therefore, she answered alone, while the old man silently and sternly prepared the chalk, and her brother gave orders about the tea.
Yes, probably - the weather is good. But shouldn't we start?
And they began. The tall room, which destroyed the sound with its upholstered furniture and curtains, became completely deaf. The maid silently moved along the fluffy carpet, carrying glasses of strong tea, and only her starched skirts rustled, the chalk squeaked and Nikolai Dmitrievich sighed, having set the large heald. Thin tea was poured for him and a special table was set up, since he loved to drink from a saucer and always with toffee.
In winter, Nikolai Dmitrievich reported that during the day the frost was ten degrees, and now it had already reached twenty, and in the summer he said:
Now a whole company has gone into the forest. With baskets.
Evpraksiya Vasilievna politely looked at the sky - in the summer they played on the terrace - and, although the sky was clear and the tops of the pines were golden, she noticed:
It wouldn't rain.
And old man Yakov Ivanovich strictly laid out the cards and, taking out the two of hearts, thought that Nikolai Dmitrievich was a frivolous and incorrigible person. At one time, Maslennikov greatly worried his partners. Every time he came, he began to say one or two phrases about Dreyfus. Making a sad face, he reported:
And things are bad for our Dreyfus.
Or, on the contrary, he laughed and joyfully said that the unjust sentence would probably be overturned. Then he began to bring newspapers and read some passages from them all about the same Dreyfus.
“We’ve already read it,” Yakov Ivanovich said dryly, but his partner did not listen to him and read what seemed interesting and important to him. Once, in this way, he brought the others to an argument and almost to a quarrel, since Evpraxia Vasilievna did not want to recognize the legal order of legal proceedings and demanded that Dreyfus be released immediately, and Yakov Ivanovich and her brother insisted that first it was necessary to observe some formalities and then release. Yakov Ivanovich was the first to come to his senses and said, pointing to the table:
But isn't it time?
And they sat down to play, and then, no matter how much Nikolai Dmitrievich spoke about Dreyfus, they answered him with silence.
This is how they played summer and winter, spring and autumn. Sometimes events happened, but more of a funny nature. At times, something seemed to come over Eupraxia Vasilievna’s brother; he didn’t remember what the partners said about their cards, and with five correct cards he was left without one. Then Nikolai Dmitrievich laughed loudly and exaggerated the significance of the loss, and the old man smiled and said:
If only four of us played, we would have had our own people.
All the players showed particular excitement when Evpraxia Vasilievna called a big game. She blushed, was confused, not knowing which card to put her, and looked pleadingly at her silent brother, and the other two partners, with chivalrous sympathy for her femininity and helplessness, encouraged her with condescending smiles and waited patiently. In general, however, the game was taken seriously and thoughtfully. Cards had long ago lost the meaning of soulless matter in their eyes, and each suit, and within a suit each card individually, was strictly individual and lived its own separate life. There were favorite and unloved suits, happy and unhappy ones. The cards were combined in an infinite variety, and this variety defied either analysis or rules, but at the same time it was natural. And this pattern contained the life of the cards, which was different from the lives of the people who played them. People wanted and got their way from them, and the cards did theirs, as if they had their share, their tastes, likes and whims. Worms especially often came to Yakov Ivanovich, and Eupraxia Vasilyevna’s hands were constantly full of spades, although she did not like them very much. It happened that the cards were capricious, and Yakov Ivanovich did not know where to go from the spades, and Evpraksiya Vasilyevna rejoiced at the worms, assigned big games and restarted. And then the cards seemed to laugh. All suits came to Nikolai Dmitrievich equally, and not one stayed for long, and all the cards looked like hotel guests who come and go, indifferent to the place where they had to spend several days. Sometimes, for several evenings in a row, only twos and threes would come to see him and at the same time they had an impudent and mocking appearance. Nikolai Dmitrievich was sure that the reason he could not play a grand slam was because the cards knew about his desire and deliberately did not go to him in order to annoy him. And he pretended that he was completely indifferent to what kind of game he would have, and tried not to reveal the buy-in for a long time. Very rarely did he manage to deceive the cards in this way; They usually guessed, and when he opened the purchase, three sixes laughed from there and the king of spades, whom they had dragged for company, smiled gloomily.
Evpraxia Vasilyevna penetrated least of all into the mysterious essence of the cards; old man Yakov Ivanovich had long ago developed a strictly philosophical view and was not surprised or upset, having a sure weapon against fate in his four. Only Nikolai Dmitrievich could not come to terms with the whimsical nature of the cards, their mockery and inconstancy. Going to bed, he thought about how he would play a grand slam with no trumps, and it seemed so simple and possible: here comes one ace, followed by a king, then an ace again. But when, full of hope, he sat down to play, the damned sixes again bared their wide white teeth. There was something fatal and evil in this. And gradually the grand helmet with no trumps became the most strong desire and even the dream of Nikolai Dmitrievich.
Other events occurred outside of the card game. Eupraxia Vasilievna’s large white cat died of old age and, with the permission of the homeowner, was buried in the garden under a linden tree. Then Nikolai Dmitrievich disappeared one day for two whole weeks, and his partners did not know what to think and what to do, since the three of them broke all established habits and seemed boring. The cards themselves were clearly aware of this and were combined in unusual forms. When Nikolai Dmitrievich appeared, his rosy cheeks, which were so sharply separated from his gray fluffy hair, turned grey, and he became smaller and shorter in stature. He said that his eldest son had been arrested for something and sent to St. Petersburg. Everyone was surprised because they didn’t know that Maslennikov had a son; maybe he ever spoke, but everyone forgot about it. Soon after this, he failed to show up again, and, as luck would have it, on Saturday, when the game lasted longer than usual, and everyone was again surprised to learn that he had been suffering from angina pectoris for a long time and that on Saturday he had a severe attack of the disease. But then everything settled down again, and the game became even more serious and interesting, since Nikolai Dmitrievich was less amused by extraneous conversations. Only the maid's starched skirts rustled and the satin cards silently slid from the players' hands and lived their own mysterious and silent life, separate from the lives of the people who played them. They were still indifferent to Nikolai Dmitrievich and sometimes maliciously mocking, and there was something fatal in this.
But on Thursday, November 26, a strange change occurred in the cards. As soon as the game began, a large crown came to Nikolai Dmitrievich, and he played, and not even five, as he had appointed, but a small helmet, since Yakov Ivanovich had an extra ace, which he did not want to show. Then sixes appeared again for a while, but soon disappeared, and full suits began to arrive, and they came in strict order, as if they all wanted to see how Nikolai Dmitrievich would rejoice. He assigned game after game, and everyone was surprised, even the calm Yakov Ivanovich. The excitement of Nikolai Dmitrievich, whose chubby fingers with dimples on the bends were sweating and dropping cards, was transmitted to other players.
“Well, you’re lucky today,” said Eupraxia Vasilievna’s brother gloomily, who was most afraid of too much happiness, followed by an equally great sorrow. Eupraxia Vasilyevna was pleased that Nikolai Dmitrievich had finally received good cards, and in response to her brother’s words, she spat three times to the side to prevent misfortune.
Ugh, ugh, ugh! There is nothing special. The cards come and go, and God grant that more come.
The cards seemed to hesitate for a minute, several deuces flashed with an embarrassed look - and again aces, kings and queens began to appear with increased speed. Nikolai Dmitrievich did not have time to collect the cards and set the game and had already failed twice, so he had to retake it. And all the games were successful, although Yakov Ivanovich stubbornly kept silent about his aces: his surprise gave way to disbelief at the sudden change in happiness, and he once again repeated his unchanged decision - not to play more than four. Nikolai Dmitrievich was angry with him, blushed and was out of breath. He no longer thought about his moves and boldly called for a high game, confident that he would find what he needed in the buy-in.
When, after the gloomy Prokopiy Vasilyevich Maslennikov dealt the cards, he revealed his cards, his heart began to pound and immediately sank, and his eyes became so dark that he swayed - he had twelve tricks in his hands: clubs and hearts from Ace to Ten and an Ace of Diamonds with a King . If he buys the Ace of Spades, he will have a great no-trump helmet.
“Two no trumps,” he began, having difficulty controlling his voice.
“Three spades,” answered Eupraxia Vasilievna, who was also very excited: she had almost all the spades, starting from the king.
“Four worms,” Yakov Ivanovich responded dryly.
Nikolai Dmitrievich immediately raised the game to a small slam, but the heated Evpraksiya Vasilievna did not want to give in and, although she saw that she would not play, appointed a large slam in spades. Nikolai Dmitrievich thought for a second and with some solemnity, behind which fear was hidden, slowly said:
Grand slam in trump cards!
Nikolai Dmitrievich plays a grand slam in no trumps! Everyone was amazed, and the owner’s brother even shouted:
Nikolai Dmitrievich extended his hand for the purchase, but swayed and knocked over the candle. Evpraksiya Vasilievna grabbed her, and Nikolai Dmitrievich sat motionless and straight for a second, putting the cards on the table, and then waved his hands and slowly began to fall onto left side. Falling, he knocked over the table on which stood a saucer with poured tea, and crushed its crunchy leg with his body.
When the doctor arrived, he found that Nikolai Dmitrievich had died of heart paralysis, and to console the living he said a few words about the painlessness of such a death. The deceased was placed on a Turkish sofa in the same room where they played, and he, covered with a sheet, seemed huge and scary. One leg, with its toe turned inward, remained uncovered and seemed foreign, taken from another person; On the sole of the boot, black and completely new, a piece of toffee paper stuck to the indentation. The card table had not yet been cleared, and on it lay randomly scattered, face down, the partners' cards and Nikolai Dmitrievich's cards lay in order, in a thin block, as he had laid them out.
Yakov Ivanovich walked around the room with small and uncertain steps, trying not to look at the dead man and not to step from the carpet onto the polished parquet floor, where his high heels made a sudden and sharp click. Having walked past the table several times, he stopped and carefully took Nikolai Dmitrievich’s cards, examined them and, folding them in the same pile, quietly put them in place. Then he looked at the buy-in: there was an ace of spades, the same one that Nikolai Dmitrievich lacked for a grand slam. After walking a few more times, Yakov Ivanovich went into the next room, buttoned his coat more tightly and began to cry, because he felt sorry for the deceased. Closing his eyes, he tried to imagine Nikolai Dmitrievich’s face as it was during his life, when he won and laughed. It was especially unfortunate to remember the frivolity of Nikolai Dmitrievich and how he wanted to win the big no-trump slam. The whole of today's evening passed in my memory, starting with the five tambourines played by the deceased and ending with this continuous influx good cards, in which something terrible was felt. And then Nikolai Dmitrievich died - he died when he could finally play a grand slam.
But one consideration, terrible in its simplicity, shook the thin body of Yakov Ivanovich and made him jump out of his chair. Looking around, as if the thought had not come to him on its own, but someone had whispered it in his ear, Yakov Ivanovich said loudly:
But he will never know that there was an ace in the draw and that he had the right big helmet in his hands. Never!
And it seemed to Yakov Ivanovich that he still did not understand what death was. But now he understood, and what he clearly saw was so senseless, terrible and irreparable. He'll never know! If Yakov Ivanovich starts shouting about this right in his ear, crying and showing cards, Nikolai Dmitrievich will not hear and will never know, because there is no Nikolai Dmitrievich in the world. Just one more movement, one second of something that is life, and Nikolai Dmitrievich would see the ace and know that he has a grand slam, but now it’s all over and he doesn’t know and will never know.
“Never,” Yakov Ivanovich said slowly, syllable by syllable, to make sure that such a word exists and has meaning.
Such a word existed and had meaning, but it was so monstrous and bitter that Yakov Ivanovich again fell into a chair and cried helplessly from pity for the one who would never know, and from pity for himself, for everyone, since the same thing is terrible and senselessly cruel things will happen to him and to everyone. He cried - and played for Nikolai Dmitrievich with his cards, and took bribes one after another, until there were thirteen of them, and thought how much he would have to write down, and that Nikolai Dmitrievich would never know this. This was the first and last time, when Yakov Ivanovich stepped back from his four and played a big no-trump slam in the name of friendship.
Are you here, Yakov Ivanovich? - said Evpraxia Vasilievna, who came in, sank down onto a nearby chair and began to cry. - How terrible, how terrible!
Both of them did not look at each other and cried silently, feeling that in the next room, on the sofa, a dead man lay, cold, heavy and dumb.
Did you send to say? - asked Yakov Ivanovich, blowing his nose loudly and furiously.
Yes, my brother went with Annushka. But how will they find his apartment - we don’t know the address.
Isn't he in the same apartment as last year? - Yakov Ivanovich asked absently.
No, I changed it. Annushka says that he hired a cab driver somewhere on Novinsky Boulevard.
“They will find it through the police,” the old man reassured. - It seems like he has a wife?
Eupraxia Vasilievna looked thoughtfully at Yakov Ivanovich and did not answer. It seemed to him that in her eyes he could see the same thought that had occurred to him. He blew his nose again, hid the handkerchief in the pocket of his coat and said, raising his eyebrows questioningly over his reddened eyes:
Where can we get the fourth one now?
But Eupraxia Vasilyevna did not hear him, busy with economic considerations. After a pause, she asked:
And you, Yakov Ivanovich, are you still in the same apartment?
Leonid Nikolaevich Andreev (1871 - 1919) - Russian writer. Representative of the Silver Age of Russian literature.
Counted "Grand Slam" best story L.N. Andreeva. The work was highly appreciated by L.N. Tolstoy. In a card game, a “grand slam” is a position in which the opponent cannot take any of his partner’s cards with the highest card or trump card. For six years, three times a week (on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays) Nikolai Dmitrievich Maslennikov, Yakov Ivanovich, Prokopy Vasilyevich and Evpraksiya Vasilievna play screw.
Emphasizes that the stakes in the game were insignificant and the winnings were small. However, Evpraxia Vasilievna really valued the money she won and put it separately in her piggy bank.
The behavior of the characters during a card game clearly shows their attitude towards life in general. The elderly Yakov Ivanovich never plays more than four, even if he had good game. He is careful and prudent. “You never know what might happen,” he comments on his habit.
His partner Nikolai Dmitrievich, on the contrary, always takes risks and constantly loses, but does not lose heart and dreams of winning back next time. One day Maslennikov became interested in Dreyfus. Alfred Dreyfus (1859-1935) was a French general staff officer who was accused of passing secret documents to Germany in 1894 and then acquitted. The partners first argue about the Dreyfus case, but soon get carried away by the game and fall silent.
When Prokopiy Vasilievich loses, Nikolai Dmitrievich rejoices, and Yakov Ivanovich advises not to take risks next time. Prokopiy Vasilievich is afraid of great happiness, because behind him goes big grief.
Evpraksiya Vasilievna - the only woman in four players. During a big game, she looks pleadingly at her brother, her constant partner. Other partners await her move with chivalrous sympathy and condescending smiles.
The symbolic meaning of the story is that our whole life, in fact, can be presented as card game. It has partners, and there are rivals. “Cards can be combined in infinitely different ways,” writes L.N. Andreev. An analogy immediately arises: life also presents us with endless surprises. The writer emphasizes that people tried to achieve their own in the game, and the cards lived their own lives, which defied either analysis or rules. Some people go with the flow in life, others rush around and try to change their fate. For example, Nikolai Dmitrievich believes in luck and dreams of playing a “grand slam”. When, finally, the long-awaited serious game comes to Nikolai Dmitrievich, he, fearing to miss it, assigns a “grand slam in no trumps” - the most difficult and highest combination in the card hierarchy. The hero takes a certain risk, since for a sure victory he must also receive the ace of spades in the draw. To everyone's surprise and admiration, he reaches for the purchase and suddenly dies from cardiac paralysis. After his death, it turned out that, by a fateful coincidence, the draw contained the same ace of spades that would have ensured a sure victory in the game.
After the death of the hero, the partners think about how Nikolai Dmitrievich would rejoice at this game played. All people in this life are players. They try to take revenge, win, catch luck by the tail, thereby asserting themselves, count small victories, and think very little about those around them. For many years, people met three times a week, but rarely talked about anything other than the game, did not share problems, and did not even know where their friends lived. And only after the death of one of them, the rest understand how dear they were to each other. Yakov Ivanovich is trying to imagine himself in his partner’s place and feel what Nikolai Dmitrievich must have felt when he played the “grand slam”. It is no coincidence that the hero changes his habits for the first time and begins to play a card game, the results of which his deceased comrade will never see. It is symbolic that he goes first to the most open one. He told his partners about himself more often than others, and was not indifferent to the problems of others, as evidenced by his interest in the Dreyfus case.
The story has philosophical depth and subtlety of psychological analysis. Its plot is both original and characteristic of the works of the era “ silver age" At this time, the theme of the catastrophic nature of existence, the ominous fate hanging over human destiny, receives special significance. It is no coincidence that the motive of sudden death brings together the story of L.N. Andreev “Grand Slam” with the work of I.A. Bunin's "", in which the hero also dies at the very moment when he finally had to enjoy what he had dreamed of all his life.
What is the attitude of the players to the events taking place in life. What do Grand Slam heroes talk about besides the game?
In which episodes is there a clear theme of the characters’ indifference to each other and alienation?
Which scenes most clearly depict the absurdity of the described world, absorbed in the play and play of the meaningless. analyze the reaction of each of Mr. to the death of Mr. Dmitrievich, as evidenced by it
What is the ambiguity of the name?
1.They talk about abstract topics about people walking,
the weather, people walking into the forest with baskets, the fate of a certain Dreyfus, whom no one knows. The conversation is more of a background; it is meaningless. The attitude towards the events taking place in life is almost indifferent; they are more interested in cards that live “their own life”. The world around them worries them insofar as it does not break their established traditions. This shows, for example, the attitude towards Sunday as a “boring day”, because at this time there are usually no games, time is reserved for theaters and guests. For the games, we chose the quietest room possible (shows the importance of the game).
2. Nikolai Dmitrievich began to come later, but no one was interested in why. No one noticed any signs of deterioration in his health either. When he disappeared for two weeks, everyone was worried that the normal course of the game would be disrupted.
People don’t know who lives where, whether anyone has children, and they are always surprised to learn about something.
3. Cards are endowed own life, thoughts, feelings, intentions (peaks come to some, worms to others). They are endowed with character traits (twos and threes have a “bold and mocking appearance”). And people begin to live in this imaginary world, shutting themselves off from the real world, their souls harden, they become indifferent (for example, Evpraksiya Vasilievna once had an unhappy love, but no longer remembers why they didn’t get married). This is most clearly seen in the episode of the death of Nikolai Dmitrievich.
Reaction to death. Yakov Ivanovich tries not to look at the dead man. I cried with pity only when I saw that he was literally one ace of spades short of a grand slam. He thinks about where they will get the fourth one.
Nothing is said about the third player; most likely, it is implied that he simply left.
4. The name has two meanings: literal and subtext. Literally: grand slam is a term in a card game. Subtext: the grand helmet is a symbol of what Nikolai Dmitrievich strived for during his life, what he saw as his goal in life, his meaning. While it is just a card game, but it has replaced these people real life. He almost achieves his dream, but dies almost immediately. Yakov Ivanovich is upset that Nikolai Dmitrievich “didn’t understand” that he practically played a grand slam. While the author is sad rather because the hero died without understanding the value of real life.
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METHODS OF WORLD MODELING IN L. ANDREEV’S STORY “GRAND SLM”: GENRE ASPECT
High degree of semiotics of the genre literary work allows you to use genre analysis as a way to comprehend the integrity of the text. For theorists of the formal school, the features of the genre are dominant 1. This, in turn, suggests that the structure of a literary work can be understood through genre. In the works of M.M. Bakhtin talks about the close connection of the genre with the theme of the work and the worldview of the author 2. The concept of “genre content”, introduced by G.N. Pospelov, turns out to be important for genre analysis aimed at understanding the aesthetic concept of reality embodied in the text.
There is another understanding of the possibilities of genre analysis. Thus, analysis in terms of gender and genre by A.B. Esin in his monograph “Principles and Techniques of Analysis of a Literary Work” refers to auxiliary types of analysis. world modeling poetics character genre
It seems to us that the most productive genre analysis is based on the ontological aspect, which allows us to consider the genre as “a certain type of world-creation in which certain relationships between man and reality are brought to the center.” artistic universe and can be aesthetically comprehended and appreciated in the light of the universal law of life” 5.
The above focuses our attention not on a descriptive, but on a functional approach to the problem of the genre of a literary work, which, in turn, leads to the fact that the main task is not genre identification work, but a study of how the genre structure relates to the model of the world embodied in the work, how various genre strategies interact within the same text.
This task, in our opinion, has been most consistently implemented
N.L. Leiderman 6, who proposes to correlate genre analysis of the text with the system of genre carriers. The theoretical model of the genre he developed formed the basis for the analysis of L. Andreev’s story “The Grand Slam”.
The story “The Grand Slam” was first published in the Moscow newspaper “Courier” on December 14, 1899. There is a practice of considering this text among others early stories writers focused primarily on the realistic tradition. However, when analyzing the texts of L. Andreev, one should take into account the point of view of the author of the monograph on the work of the writer L.A. Jesuitova: “The division of L. Andreev’s creativity into traditional realistic and philosophical or some other (non-realistic, semi-realistic, modernist, expressionist, symbolic, existentialist) is sometimes legitimate, but more often it is just a scheme convenient for presenting the material. Both unequal halves of Andreev’s work exist as a single organism, in interconnection and interpenetration they cannot be understood without each other, outside the general context created by them” 7. This remark, in our opinion, is directly related to the “Grand Slam” story. The genre, which is characterized by certain ways of modeling reality, reflects this duality of the text.
In the story we can find three ways of world modeling - metaphorical (symbolic), metonymic and associative. In the story as a genre of short prose, the dominant principle is the metonymic principle. Its essence lies in the fact that chance, an essential aspect of life, allows us to get an idea of the universal meaning of existence, of the world as a whole. The functioning of this principle can be compared to a system of diverging circles. Four whist players are in a closed space in the “dead” 8th room. The boundaries of this circle seem impenetrable to the “anxious and alien” 9 life. Connected with this image is the theme of the case-like existence of people who have deliberately fenced themselves off from reality. This topic brings A.P. closer together. Chekhov and L. Andreev, it is no coincidence that the story “The Grand Slam” is called one of the most “Chekhovian” in the writer’s work 10 . But outside the room, another life has always existed, exists and will exist. Inside, time flows smoothly in a circle (“So they played summer and winter, spring and autumn” 11), this time in its purest expression, it has lost its concreteness. This is evidenced by such temporary formulas as “at one time”, “at times”. Before us are formal signs idyllic chronotope: isolation from the rest of the world, cyclical time, staticity due to the repetition of events. However, one can only talk about idyll in relation to L. Andreev’s text in an ironic way. It should be noted that the first publication of the story had the genre subtitle “idyll.” However, the idyllic passage of time is characteristic only of the first part of the story; the second part begins with the fixation exact date, the narrative becomes dynamic, the reader is filled with tense anticipation that something exceptional will happen.
Outside the room, time flows in biographical and historical dimensions. We find out that two players - Eupraxia Vasilievna and her brother Prokopiy Vasilyevich - had a past: “He lost his wife in the second year after the wedding and spent two whole months after that in a mental hospital; she herself was unmarried, although she once had an affair with a student.” Nikolai Dmitrievich has a present - “the eldest son was arrested for something and sent to St. Petersburg” 13. And only the life of Yakov Ivanovich is completely limited by the time circle with which the game of vint is associated. This, in particular, is indicated by the following portrait detail: “. a small, dry old man, who wore a welded frock coat winter and summer” 14 (our italics - L.S.). External world is present in the text largely thanks to Nikolai Ivanovich, who brought “faint echoes of this alarming and alien life” 15, he, with conversations about the weather, about the Dreyfus affair, least of all fits into the boundaries set by the card game. Note that this is the only hero with a surname (Maslennikov). This is a sign of belonging to the world that is outside the card circle, and a sign of the hero’s unlost individuality. Finally, there is a third circle in the text of the story, correlated with the narrator’s speech zone; it amazes with its cosmic scale and timeless characteristics. The narration, conducted from a third person, is detached and enhances the effect of alienation. Only in the finale does this circle open for a moment for Yakov Ivanovich, when he realizes what death is, cries helplessly and understands that all attempts to “bypass” fate are pointless.
The associative principle of world modeling is associated with the motif of a card game. It is built in the reader's mind whole line literary associations, primarily those where the motifs of card games and death are associated: “The Queen of Spades” by A.S. Pushkin, “Masquerade” and “Shtoss” by M.Yu. Lermontov, “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” L.N. Tolstoy. The motive of animating, humanizing the cards makes us remember not only “ Queen of Spades» A.S. Pushkin, but also “Players” by N.V. Gogol, and the story
A.P. Chekhov's "Screw", where this theme is presented in a humorous, reduced key. The associative series associated with the theme of “case life” also draws us to the works of A.P. Chekhov.
The image, growing from the synthesis of associations, goes back to the metaphor “life is a game.” At the same time, we are not talking about comparing life with a game, as, for example, in the drama by M.Yu. Lermontov "Masquerade". L. Andreev’s metaphor realizes and brings to its logical conclusion the motive of humanizing cards. It is the metaphorical principle that allows us to identify the specifics of the model of the world that is created in L. Andreev’s story. The writer depicts the moment of substitution, the replacement of reality with a certain conventional, fantastic scheme. Grotesque deformation as a principle of world modeling is characteristic of expressionism. The more people who play cards become isolated in the situation of the game, the more they fall under the power of the cards. Finally, it becomes obvious: it is not people who play cards, but people who play cards. This kind of metaphor turns out to be very characteristic of the poetics of the Expressionists. Suffice it to recall the micro-novel about the king who “played at people”, and now he himself has turned into playing card in the story by Sigismund Krzhizhanovsky “The Wandering “Strange””.
People lose their individuality, but cards begin to acquire more and more individuality, they become more significant than people, they acquire “their own will, their own tastes, sympathies and whims” 16. In this regard, the death of Nikolai Dmitrievich can be considered both as a result of his illness (angina pectoris, cardiac paralysis) and as an expression of the will of the cards with which the motives of fate and fate are associated. Why does Nikolai Dmitrievich become a victim of cards? He differs from his partners in that he has not lost his taste for life, has not learned to hide his feelings, even within the boundaries indicated by the card game, has not lost the ability to dream and experience strong passions. The description of the relationship between the hero and the cards in the story is given significant place. For all players, cards have long lost their “meaning of soulless matter” 17 . Nikolai Dmitrievich Maslennikov in to a greater extent, than other heroes, realizes his dependence on the will of the cards, cannot come to terms with their whimsical disposition, and tries to outplay them. In relation to the cards to Nikolai Dmitrievich, “something fatal, something fatal” was felt 18.
The dissimilarity and foreignness of Nikolai Dmitrievich is emphasized in every possible way by the author. Alienity in the literature of expressionism shapes the nature and specificity of relationships in all spheres without exception, constituting the core of the concept of alienation. The fussiness of whist players' existence, their isolation from the world, is one of the aspects of alienation. The isolation of the heroes, who know nothing and do not want to know about each other, is another level of alienation. The place of the stranger in the story, vacated due to the death of Nikolai Dmitrievich, will not be empty. Who will the cards pick next? Yakov Ivanovich? Eupraxia Vasilievna? Her brother, who was afraid of “too much happiness, followed by equally great sorrow” 19? At the end of the story we clearly feel the breath of death as the breath of eternity, this is the dominant feeling of the expressionists. But even death is unable to break the usual circle of existence of heroes.
Thus, we see how expressionism acts as a kind of second layer, superimposed on a realistic basis.
The technique of shift and alogism characteristic of expressionism does not yet reveal itself as clearly as, for example, in L. Andreev’s later story “Red Laughter,” however, in “Grand Slam” we find a combination of specific naturalistic detail (“toffee paper” in the sole of a dead man's boot) and mystical-sounding motifs of fate and death. Lack of motivation for transitions from the infinitely small to the infinitely large: “This is how they played summer and winter, spring and autumn. The decrepit world obediently bore the heavy yoke of endless existence and either blushed with blood or shed tears, announcing its path in space with the groans of the sick, hungry and offended,” 20 - this too distinguishing feature poetics of expressionism. Perhaps the most a shining example Eupraxia Vasilyevna’s unexpected question at the end turns out to be unmotivated and strange:
“And you, Yakov Ivanovich, are still in the same apartment?” The question with which the story ends takes on special significance also because it does not require an answer.
L. Andreev's story, static at the beginning and dynamic in the second part, allows us to correlate it with two genre strategies - novelistic and ethological (moral descriptive). In this case, the first one finds itself deprived of its essential characteristics and retains only some formal features. Thus, we can find an unexpected outcome in the text, an image of the mysterious game of fate with a person, we see how the writer brings life material into the focus of one event, which is typical for a short story. At the same time, we cannot call the unexpected denouement a novelistic pointe, a turn of the situation to the opposite, or the identification of properties in the characters’ characters that are new to the reader. Maslennikov’s death does not change anything; the circle of life, indicated by the card game, is not broken. Even Yakov Ivanovich, who deviated from his rules, does this for the first and last time.
A measured, detailed description of the environment in its relatively stable state, the depiction of the static characters of the characters allows us to highlight this - the logical component in the story. In this case, the object of the image is not social roles heroes, but the psychology of players who see a person not as a person, but as a playing partner. This component forms the realistic basis into which elements of expressionist poetics are woven.
Notes
1 See: Tomashevsky B.V. Theory of literature. Poetics / B.V. Tomashevsky. - M., 2 1996.
2 See: Bakhtin M.M. Aesthetics verbal creativity/ MM. Bakhtin. - M., 1979; Medvedev, P.N. (Bakhtin M.M.) Formal method in literary criticism / P.N. Medvedev (M.M. Bakhtin). - L., 1927.
3 See: Pospelov G.N. On the issue of poetic genres / G.N. Pospelov // Reports and communications of the Faculty of Philology of Moscow State University. - 1948. - Issue. 5. - pp. 59-60.
4 See: Esin A.B. Principles and techniques of analyzing a literary work: textbook. allowance / A.B. Yesin. - M., 1999. In some cases, according to the author, genre can help in analysis, indicate which aspects of the work should be paid attention to. The possibilities of genre analysis are limited by the fact that not all works have a clear genre nature, and in the case when the genre is defined unambiguously, this “does not always help the analysis, since genre structures are often recognized by a secondary feature that does not create a special originality of content and form” (p. 221). However, the author relates this remark to a greater extent to the analysis of lyrical genres. When it comes to analysis epic works, first of all, a story, the genre aspect seems essential (p. 222).
5 Workshop on genre analysis literary work / N.L. Leiderman, M.N. Lipovetsky, N.V. Barkovskaya and others - Ekaterinburg: Ural. state ped. univ., 2003. -S. 24.
6 Ibid. pp. 15-24.
7 Jesuitova L.A. Creativity of Leonid Andreev. 1892-1906 / L.A. Jesuitova. - L., 1975. - P. 65.
8 Andreev L.N. Grand Slam / L.N. Andreev // Favorites. - M., 1982. - P. 59.
9 Ibid. P. 59.
10 Bezzubov V.I. Leonid Andreev and the traditions of Russian realism / V.I. Without teeth. - Tallinn, 1984.
11 Andreev, L. N. Decree. op. P. 59.
12 Ibid. P. 58.
13 Ibid. P. 62.
14 Ibid. P. 58.
15 Ibid. P. 59.
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L.N. Andreev is one of the few writers who subtly felt the movement of life, its rapid impulses and the slightest changes. The writer felt the tragedy especially acutely human existence, which is controlled by mysterious, fatal forces unknown to people. His work is the result of philosophical reflection, an attempt to answer the eternal questions of existence. In Andreev’s works, artistic details acquire special value. At first glance, they seem completely motionless and silent. Behind the smallest details, like light strokes, subtle halftones and hints are hidden. Thus, the writer encourages his reader to independently answer critical issues human life. Therefore, in order to understand Andreev’s works, you need to feel the semantic shades of each word, be able to determine its sound in context. This is what we will now try to do when analyzing the story “Grand Slam”. II Conversation on the story “Grand Slam” - What is the peculiarity of the plot and character system?(The plot of the story, at first glance, seems quite simple. However, upon closer examination, one can notice philosophical meaning, which is hidden behind the real everyday basis. Characters of the story - ordinary people. For many years they spend their leisure time playing vint. The author sparingly outlines the features of his heroes and says nothing about inner world characters. The reader himself has to guess that behind the simple plot basis and laconic depiction of the characters there is meant a symbol of the monotony of the flow of life, in the rhythm of which ordinary people live aimlessly).- What is the intonation of the piece? What is her role? ( The intonation of the story is simple, devoid of emotionality, acute drama, and calm. The author impartially describes the leisure time of the players. We are talking about ordinary and inconspicuous events. But behind the measured intonation of the narrative, tension is hidden, drama is felt in the subtext. In this calm flow of life, behind the monotony of a card game, people lose their spiritual appearance and individuality).- What can you say about the heroes of the story “Grand Slam”? How are their actions described? (The appearance of the heroes is briefly outlined. Yakov Ivanovich “was a small, dry old man, winter and summer, walking around in a welded frock coat and trousers, silent and stern.” The complete opposite of him is Nikolai Dmitrievich - “fat and hot,” “red-cheeked, smelling fresh.” air.” Evpraksiya Vasilyevna and Prokopy Vasilyevich are described in less detail. When describing their brother and sister, Andreev limits himself to mentioning the facts of their biography. All the heroes have one thing in common - the card game has replaced the diversity of their life. established order and the artificially created conditions of existence may collapse. The world of these heroes will be hidden within the confines of a deck of cards. Therefore, their actions are very stereotyped. The author succinctly describes the manner of their playing).- Compare the two heroes Nikolai Dmitrievich and Yakov Ivanovich by their behavior at the card table. How do their characters reveal themselves through details?(Yakov Ivanovich never played more than four tricks, his actions are precisely weighed, do not allow the slightest deviation from the order he established. Nikolai Dmitrievich, on the contrary, is presented in the story as a passionate player. Playing cards completely absorbs him. In addition, he dreams of a grand slam , so he constantly displays outbursts of emotion).- How does Andreev describe the cards in the story “Grand Slam”? What is the meaning behind the detailed images of the cards? (One gets the impression that cards and people have swapped places: people look like inanimate objects, and cards behave like living beings. The author describes the card suits in detail. As the description becomes more detailed, the cards acquire a character, a certain pattern of behavior, they become prone to manifestations emotions. We can say that the author performs an artistic ritual of reviving the cards. The personification of the cards can be contrasted with the process of spiritual death of the heroes).- What symbolic subtext is hidden behind the death of Nikolai Dmitrievich? (The death of this hero is natural and inevitable. The entire course of the narrative foreshadows a tragic ending. The absurdity of the dream of a grand slam testifies to the spiritual death of the hero. After which physical death occurs. The absurdity of the situation is enhanced by the fact that his dream came true. The death of Nikolai Dmitrievich symbolizes the emptiness of many human aspirations and desires, the destructive influence of everyday life, which, like acid, corrodes the personality and makes it colorless).- What is the philosophical meaning of the story?(Many people live in an atmosphere of spiritual vacuum. They forget about compassion, kindness, mercy, intellectual development. There is no keen interest in the world around them in their hearts. By depicting the limited personal space of his heroes, the author covertly expresses his disagreement with this form of existence).