Introduction
Chapter 1. Forms psychological analysis in prose by V.M. Garshina
1.1. The artistic nature of confession 24-37
1.2. Psychological function"close-up" 38-47
1.3 Psychological function of a portrait, landscape, setting 48-61
Chapter 2. Poetics of narration in prose by V.M. Garshina
2.1. Types of narration (description, narration, reasoning) 62-97
2.2. “Alien speech” and its narrative functions 98-109
2.3. Functions of the narrator and narrator in the writer’s prose 110-129
2.4. Point of view in narrative structure and the poetics of psychologism 130-138
Conclusion 139-146
References 147-173
Introduction to the work
Unflagging interest in the poetics of V.M. Garshina indicates that this area of research remains very relevant for modern science. The writer’s work has long been an object of study from the standpoint of different directions and literary schools. However, in this research diversity, three stand out: methodological approach, each of which brings together a whole group of scientists.
TO first The group should include scientists (G.A. Byaly, N.Z. Belyaeva, A.N. Latynina) who consider Garshin’s work in the context of his biography. Characterizing the prose writer's writing style in general, they analyze his works in chronological order, correlating certain “shifts” in poetics with the stages of the creative path.
In research second directions, Garshin’s prose is covered mainly in a comparative typological aspect. First of all, we should mention here the article by N.V. Kozhukhovskaya “Tolstoy’s tradition in the military stories of V.M. Garshin" (1992), where it is especially noted that in the minds of Garshin's characters (as well as in the minds of L.N. Tolstoy's heroes) there is no "protective psychological reaction” that would allow them not to be tormented by feelings of guilt and personal responsibility. Works in Garshin studies of the second half of the 20th century are devoted to a comparison of the works of Garshin and F.M. Dostoevsky (article by F.I. Evnin “F.M. Dostoevsky and V.M. Garshin” (1962), candidate’s thesis by G.A. Skleinis “Typology of characters in F.M. Dostoevsky’s novel “The Brothers Karamazov” and in the stories of V. .M. Garshin 80s" (1992)).
Third The group consists of the works of those researchers who
focused their attention on the study of individual elements of poetics
Garshin's prose, including the poetics of his psychologism. Special Interest
presents the dissertation research of V.I. Shubin "Mastery"
psychological analysis in the works of V.M. Garshin" (1980). In our
observations, we relied on his conclusions that the distinctive
the peculiarity of the writer’s stories is “... internal energy, requiring short and lively expression, psychological the richness of the image and the entire narrative.<...>The moral and social issues that permeate all of Garshin’s work have found their bright and deep expression in the method of psychological analysis based on the comprehension of value human personality, the moral principle in human life and his public behavior" In addition, we took into account the research results of the third chapter of the work “Forms and means of psychological analysis in the stories of V.M. Garshin”, in which V.I. Shubin identifies five forms of psychological analysis: internal monologue, dialogue, dreams, portrait and landscape. While supporting the researcher’s conclusions, we note that we consider portraits and landscapes in a broader functional range, from the point of view of the poetics of psychologism.
Various aspects of the poetics of Garshin’s prose were analyzed by the authors of the collective study “Poetics of V.M. Garshin" (1990) Yu.G. Miliukov, P. Henry and others. The book touches, in particular, on the problems of theme and form (including types of narration and types of lyricism), images of the hero and the “counter-hero”, examines the impressionistic style of the writer and the “artistic mythology” of individual works, and raises the question of the principles of studying Garshin’s unfinished stories ( reconstruction problem).
The three-volume collection “Vsevolod Garshin at the turn of the century” presents research by scientists from different countries. The authors of the collection pay attention not only to various aspects of poetics (S.N. Kaydash-Lakshina “The image of the “fallen woman” in the works of Garshin”, E.M. Sventsitskaya “The concept of personality and conscience in the works of Vs. Garshin”, Yu.B Orlitsky “Prose Poems in the Works of V.M. Garshin”, etc.), but also resolve the complex problems of translating the writer’s prose into English language(M. Dewhirst “Three Translations of Garshin’s Story “Three Red Flowers””, etc.).
Problems of poetics occupy an important place in almost all works devoted to Garshin’s work. However, most structural research is still of a private or episodic nature. This applies primarily to the study of narrative and the poetics of psychologism. In those works that come close to these problems, it is more about posing the question than about solving it, which in itself is an incentive for further research. That's why relevant can be considered the identification of forms of psychological analysis and the main components of narrative poetics, which allows us to closely approach the problem of the structural combination of psychologism and narration in Garshin’s prose.
Scientific novelty work is determined by the fact that for the first time a consistent consideration of the poetics of psychologism and narration in Garshin’s prose is offered, which is the most characteristic feature writer's prose. Presented systematic approach to the study of Garshin's creativity. The supporting categories in the poetics of the writer’s psychologism are identified (confession, “close-up”, portrait, landscape, setting). Such narrative forms in Garshin's prose are defined as description, narration, reasoning, someone else's speech (direct, indirect, improperly direct), points of view, categories of narrator and storyteller.
Subject research are eighteen stories by Garshin.
Target dissertation research - identification and analytical description of the main artistic forms of psychological analysis in Garshin’s prose, systematic study of it narrative poetics. The research goal is to demonstrate how the connection between forms of psychological analysis and storytelling in prose works writer.
In accordance with the goal, specific tasks research:
1. consider the confession in the poetics of the author’s psychologism;
determine the functions of the “close-up”, portrait, landscape, setting in the poetics of the writer’s psychologism;
study the poetics of narration in the writer’s works, identify artistic function all narrative forms;
identify the functions of “someone else’s word” and “point of view” in Garshin’s narrative;
5. describe the functions of the narrator and narrator in the writer’s prose.
Methodological and theoretical basis dissertations are
literary works of A.P. Auera, M.M. Bakhtina, Yu.B. Boreva, L.Ya. Ginzburg, A.B. Esina, A.B. Krinitsyna, Yu.M. Lotman, Yu.V. Manna, A.P. Skaftymova, N.D. Tamarchenko, B.V. Tomashevsky, M.S. Uvarova, B.A. Uspensky, V.E. Khalizeva, V. Shmida, E.G. Etkind, as well as linguistic research by V.V. Vinogradova, N.A. Kozhevnikova, O.A. Nechaeva, G.Ya. Solganika. Based on the works of these scientists and the achievements of modern narratology, a methodology was developed immanent analysis, allowing to reveal the artistic essence literary phenomenon in full accordance with the author's creative aspirations. The main methodological guideline for us was the “model” of immanent analysis presented in the work of A.P. Skaftymov “Thematic composition of the novel “The Idiot””.
Theoretical meaning The work is that, based on the results obtained, it is possible to deepen the scientific understanding of the poetics of psychologism and the structure of the narrative in Garshin’s prose. The conclusions drawn in the work can serve as the basis for further theoretical study of Garshin’s work in modern literary criticism.
Practical significance The work is that its results can be used in developing a course on the history of Russian literature of the 19th century, special courses and special seminars dedicated to the work of Garshin.
Dissertation materials may be included in elective course for humanities classes in secondary schools. Main provisions submitted for defense:
1. Confession in Garshin’s prose promotes deep penetration into
inner world hero. In the story “Night” the hero’s confession becomes
the main form of psychological analysis. In other stories ("Four
of the day", "Incident", "Coward") she is not given a central place, but she
still becomes an important part of poetics and interacts with others
forms of psychological analysis.
“Close-up” in Garshin’s prose is presented: a) in the form of detailed descriptions with comments of an evaluative and analytical nature (“From the memoirs of Private Ivanov”); b) when describing dying people, the reader’s attention is drawn to the inner world, psychological state the hero who is nearby (“Death”, “Coward”); c) in the form of a list of the actions of the heroes, performing them at the moment when consciousness is turned off (“Signal”, “Nadezhda Nikolaevna”).
Portrait and landscape sketches, descriptions of the situation in Garshin’s stories enhance the author’s emotional impact on the reader, visual perception and largely contribute to identifying the internal movements of the heroes’ souls.
The narrative structure of Garshin’s works is dominated by three types of narration: description (portrait, landscape, setting, characterization), narration (specific stage, general stage and informational) and reasoning (nominal evaluative reasoning, reasoning to justify actions, reasoning to prescribe or descriptions of actions, reasoning with the meaning of affirmation or negation).
Direct speech in the writer’s texts can belong to both the hero and objects (plants). In Garshin’s works, the internal monologue is constructed as a character’s address to himself. Study of indirect and
improperly direct speech shows that these forms of someone else’s speech in Garshin’s prose are much less common than direct speech. For a writer, it is more important to reproduce the true thoughts and feelings of the characters (which are much more convenient to convey through direct speech, thereby preserving the characters’ inner experiences and emotions). Garshin’s stories contain the following points of view: in terms of ideology, space-time characteristics and psychology.
The narrator in Garshin's prose manifests himself in the forms of presenting events from the first person, and the narrator from the third, which is a systemic pattern in the poetics of the writer's narration.
Psychologism and storytelling in Garshin’s poetics are in constant interaction. In such compatibility, they form a mobile system within which structural interactions occur.
Approbation of work. The main provisions of the dissertation research were presented in scientific reports at conferences: at the X Vinogradov Readings (GOU VPO MSPU. 2007, Moscow); XI Vinogradov Readings (GOU VPO MSPU, 2009, Moscow); X Conference of Young Philologists “Poetics and Comparative Studies” (KGPI, 2007, Kolomna). Five articles were published on the topic of the research, including two in publications included in the list of the Higher Attestation Commission of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science.
Work structure determined by the goals and objectives of the study. The dissertation consists of an Introduction, two chapters, a Conclusion and a list of references. IN first The chapter consistently examines the forms of psychological analysis in Garshin’s prose. In second The chapter analyzes the narrative models by which the narration in the writer’s stories is organized. The work ends with a list of references, including 235 units.
The artistic nature of confession
Confession as literary genre after N.V. Gogol is increasingly spreading in Russian XIX literature century. From the moment confession established itself as a genre in the Russian literary tradition, the opposite phenomenon began: it became a component of a literary work, a speech organization of a text, and part of psychological analysis. It is precisely this form of confession that can be discussed in the context of Garshin’s work. This speech form in the text performs a psychological function.
IN " Literary Encyclopedia terms and concepts" provides a definition of confession as a work "in which the narration is told in the first person, and the narrator (the author himself or his hero) lets the reader into the most intimate depths of his own spiritual life, trying to understand the “ultimate truths” about himself, his generation” .
We find another definition of confession in the work of A.B. Krinitsyn “Confession of an Underground Man. On the anthropology of F.M. Dostoevsky" is "a work written in the first person and additionally endowed with at least one or more of the following features: 1) the plot contains many autobiographical motifs taken from the life of the writer himself; 2) the narrator often presents himself and his actions in a negative light; 3) the narrator describes in detail his thoughts and feelings, engaging in self-reflection." The researcher argues that the genre-forming basis of a literary confession is, at a minimum, the hero’s commitment to complete sincerity. According to A.B. Krinitsyn, for a writer, the key significance of confession lies in the opportunity to reveal to the reader the inner world of the hero without violating artistic verisimilitude.
M.S. Uvarov notes: “the text of confession arises only when the need for repentance before God results in repentance before oneself.” The researcher points out that the confession is published and readable. According to M.S. Uvarov, the theme of the author’s confession-in-hero is characteristic of Russian fiction; quite often a confession becomes a sermon, and vice versa. The history of the confessional word demonstrates that confession is not edifying moral rules, rather, it provides an opportunity for “self-expression of the soul, which finds both joy and purification in the act of confession.”
S.A. Tuzkov, I.V. Tuzkov note the presence of a subjective confessional principle in Garshin’s prose, which manifests itself “in those stories by Garshin where the narration is conducted in the first person: a personified narrator, formally separated from the author, actually expresses his views on life... . In the same writer’s stories, where the narration is narrated by a conventional narrator who does not directly enter the depicted world, the distance between the author and the hero increases somewhat, but here, too, the hero’s self-analysis, which is of a lyrical, confessional nature, occupies a significant place.”
In the dissertation SI. Patrikeev “Confession in the poetics of Russian prose of the first half of the 20th century (problems of genre evolution)” in the theoretical part, almost all aspects of this concept are indicated: the presence in the structure of the text of moments of psychological “autobiography, the confessor’s awareness of his own spiritual imperfection, his sincerity before God when presenting the circumstances, accompanying the violation of certain Christian commandments and moral prohibitions.
Confession as a speech organization of the text is the dominant feature of the story “Night”. Each hero's monologue is filled with internal experiences. The narration is told from a third person, Alexey Petrovich, his actions and thoughts are shown through the eyes of another person. The hero of the story analyzes his life, his “I”, evaluating internal qualities, conducts a dialogue with himself, pronounces his thoughts: “He heard his voice; he no longer thought, but spoke out loud...”1 (p. 148). Turning to himself, trying to sort out his “I” through the verbal expression of internal impulses, at some point he loses his sense of reality, voices begin to speak in his soul: “...they said different things, and which of these voices belonged to him, his “I,” he could not understand” (p. 143). Alexey Petrovich’s desire to understand himself, to identify even what characterizes him not from the best side, shows that he really speaks openly and sincerely about himself.
Most of the story “Night” is occupied by the hero’s monologues, his reflections on the worthlessness of his existence. Alexey Petrovich decided to commit suicide by shooting himself. The narrative is an in-depth self-analysis of the hero. Alexey Petrovich thinks about his life, tries to understand himself: “I went through everything in my memory, and it seems to me that I am right, that there is nothing to stop on, there is nowhere to put my foot in order to take the first step forward. Where to go next? I don’t know, but just get out of this vicious circle. There is no support in the past, because everything is a lie, everything is deception...” (p. 143). The hero’s thought process appears before the reader’s eyes. From the first lines, Alexey Petrovich clearly places emphasis in his life. He talks to himself, voicing his actions, without fully understanding WHAT he is going to do. “Alexey Petrovich took off his fur coat and took a knife to open his pocket and take out the cartridges, but came to his senses... . - Why work? One is enough. - Oh yes, this one tiny piece is very enough for everything to disappear forever. The whole world will disappear... . There will be no deception of oneself and others, there will be truth, the eternal truth of non-existence” (p. 148).
Psychological function of “close-up”
The concept of a close-up has not yet been clearly defined in literary criticism, although it is widely used by authoritative scientists. Yu.M. Lotman says that “...close-up and small-scale plans exist not only in cinema. It is clearly felt in a literary narrative when the same place or attention is given to phenomena of different quantitative characteristics. So, for example, if successive text segments are filled with content that is sharply different in quantitative terms: a different number of characters, whole and parts, descriptions of objects of large and small size; if in any novel the events of a day are described in one chapter, and decades in another, then we are also talking about a difference in plans.” The researcher gives examples from prose (L.N. Tolstoy “War and Peace”) and poetry (N.A. Nekrasov “Morning”).
V.E. Khalizeva in the book “ Value orientations Russian classics”, dedicated to the poetics of the novel “War and Peace” by L.N. Tolstoy, we find the interpretation of the “close-up” as a technique “where close gaze is imitated and at the same time tactile-visual contact with reality.” We will rely on the book by E.G. Etkind “The Inner Man and External Speech”, where this concept is displayed in the title of the part, dedicated to creativity Garshina. Using the results of the scientist's research, we will continue to observe the “close-up”, which we will define as the form of the image. “A close-up is what is seen, heard, felt, and even flashed in consciousness.”
Thus, V.E. Khalizev and E.G. Etkind consider the concept of “close-up” from different angles.
In the work of E.G. Etkind convincingly proves the use of this form of image in Garshin’s story “Four Days”. He turns to the category of immediacy, which is based on the direct display of the inner person “in such moments when the hero, in essence, is deprived of the physical opportunity to comment on his experiences and when not only external speech, but also internal speech is unthinkable.”
In the book by E.G. Etkinda is given detailed analysis Garshin’s story “Four Days” based on the concepts of “close-up” and immediacy. We would like to apply a similar approach to the story “From the Memoirs of Private Ivanov.” Both narratives are brought together by the form of memories. This determines some features of the stories: in the foreground is the hero and his subjective assessment of the surrounding reality, “... however, the incompleteness of facts and the almost inevitable one-sidedness of information are redeemed... by a living and direct expression of the personality of their author.”
In the story “Four Days,” Garshin gives the reader the opportunity to penetrate into the hero’s inner world and convey his feelings through the prism of consciousness. Self-analysis of a soldier abandoned, forgotten on the battlefield allows one to penetrate into the sphere of his feelings, and a detailed description of the reality around him helps to “see” the picture with his own eyes. The hero is in serious condition not only physically (wounded), but also mentally. The feeling of hopelessness, the understanding of the futility of his attempts to save himself do not allow him to lose faith, the desire to fight for his life, even instinctively, keeps him from committing suicide.
Following the hero, the reader’s (and perhaps even the viewer’s) attention is focused on individual pictures that describe his visual perception in detail.
“...It's getting hot, though. The sun is burning. I open my eyes and see the same bushes, the same sky, only in daylight. And here is my neighbor. Yes, this is a Turk, a corpse. How huge! I recognize him, he's the one...
The man I killed lies in front of me. Why did I kill him?...” (p. 50).
This consistent fixation of attention on individual moments allows you to look at the world through the eyes of the hero.
Observing the “close-up” in the story “Four Days,” we can assert that the “close-up” in this story is voluminous, maximized through the technique of introspection, narrowing the temporal (four days) and spatial extent. In the story “From the Memoirs of Private Ivanov,” where the dominant narrative form is memory, the “close-up” will be presented differently. In the text you can see not only the internal state of the hero, but also the feelings and experiences of the people around him, in connection with this, the space of the events depicted expands. Private Ivanov’s worldview is meaningful; there is some assessment of the chain of events. There are episodes in this story where the hero’s consciousness is turned off (even if partially) - it is in them that a “close-up” can be found.
Types of narration (description, narration, reasoning)
G.Ya. Solganik identifies three functional and semantic types of speech: description, narration, reasoning. The description is divided into static (interrupts the development of the action) and dynamic (does not suspend the development of the action, small in volume). G.Ya. Solganik points out the connection between the description and the place and situation of the action, the portrait of the hero (accordingly, portrait, landscape, event descriptions, etc. are distinguished). He notes the important role of this functional-semantic type of speech for creating imagery in the text. The scientist emphasizes that the genre of the work is important and individual style writer. According to G.Ya. Solganik, the peculiarity of narration lies in the transmission of the event itself, the action: “Narration is closely connected with space and time.”
It can be objectified, neutral or subjective, in which the author’s word predominates. Reasoning, as the researcher writes, is characteristic of psychological prose. It is in it that the inner world of the heroes prevails, and their monologues are filled with thoughts about the meaning of life, art, moral principles etc. Reasoning makes it possible to reveal the inner world of the hero, demonstrate his view of life, people, and the world around him. He believes that the presented functional-semantic types of speech in literary text complement each other (narration with descriptive elements is most common).
With the advent of the works of O.A. Nechaeva in national science the term “functional-semantic type of speech” is firmly established (“certain logical-semantic and structural types of monologue utterance, which are used as models in the process verbal communication"). The researcher identifies four structural and semantic “descriptive genres”: landscape, portrait of a person, interior (furnishings), characterization. O.A. Nechaeva notes that all of them are widely represented in fiction.
Let's identify the narrative specifics of the description (landscape, portrait, setting, description-characteristics). In Garshin's prose, little space is given to descriptions of nature, but nevertheless they are not without narrative functions. Landscape sketches serve more as a background to the story. We must agree with G.A. Lobanova is that landscape is “a type of description, an integral image of an open fragment of natural or urban space.”
These patterns are clearly manifested in Garshin’s story “Bears,” which begins with a lengthy description of the area. A landscape sketch precedes the narrative. It serves as a prologue to a sad story about mass shooting bears who walked with the gypsies: “Below, the river, bending like a blue ribbon, stretches from north to south, now moving away from the high bank into the steppe, now approaching and flowing under the very steep edge. It is bordered by willow bushes, in some places by pine, and near the city by pastures and gardens. At some distance from the shore, towards the steppe, shifting sands stretch in a continuous strip almost along the entire course of the Rokhli, barely restrained by red and black vines and a thick carpet of fragrant purple thyme” (p. 175).
The description of nature is a listing of the characteristics of the general appearance of the area (river, steppe, shifting sands). These are permanent signs that make up topographic description. The listed features are key components of the description, which include supporting words (below the river, towards the steppe, at some distance from the shore, along the entire course of the Rokhli, stretches from north to south).
In this description, verbs are found only in the form of the present constant tense (stretch, bordered) and indicative mood. This happens because in the description, according to O.A. Nechaeva, there is no change in the time plan and the use of unreal modality, which lead to the appearance of dynamism in the text work of art(this is typical of storytelling). The landscape in a story is not only the place where events take place, it is also the starting point of the story. From this landscape sketch breathes serenity, silence, peace. The emphasis on this is made so that everyone further events, associated with the real murder of innocent animals, were perceived by the reader “in contrast.”
In the story “The Red Flower,” the writer gives a description of the garden, because the main events of the story will be connected with this place and the flower growing here. This is where the main character will constantly be drawn. After all, he is absolutely sure that poppy flowers carry universal evil, and he is called upon to enter into battle with it and destroy it, even at the cost of his own life: “Meanwhile, clear, good weather came; ... Their section of the garden, small but densely overgrown with trees, was planted with flowers wherever possible. ...
“Alien speech” and its narrative functions
MM. Bakhtin (V.N. Voloshinov) claims that ““alien speech” is a speech within a speech, an utterance within an utterance, but at the same time it is also a speech about speech, an utterance about an utterance.” He believes that someone else's statement enters into speech and becomes its special constructive element, while maintaining its independence. The researcher characterizes patterns of indirect, direct speech and their modifications. In the indirect construction M.M. Bakhtin distinguishes the subject-analytical (with the help of an indirect construction, the subject composition of someone else’s utterance is conveyed - what the speaker said) and the verbal-analytical (someone else’s utterance is conveyed as an expression that characterizes the speaker himself: his state of mind, ability to express himself, speech manner, etc. ) modification. The scientist especially notes that in the Russian language there may also be a third modification of indirect speech - impressionistic. Its peculiarity is that it is somewhere in the middle between subject-analytical and verbal-analytical modifications. In the direct speech patterns of M.M. Bakhtin identifies the following modifications: prepared direct speech (a common case of the emergence of direct speech from indirect speech, weakening the objectivity of the author’s context), materialized direct speech (evaluations saturated with its objective content are transferred to the hero’s words), anticipated, scattered and hidden direct speech (includes the author’s intonations , someone else's speech is being prepared). The scientist has a separate chapter of the school, which includes two speeches: the hero and the author), which is examined using examples from French, German and Russian.
N.A. Kozhevnikov in the book “Types of narration in Russian literature of the 19th-20th centuries.” offers his vision of the nature of the narrative in prose fiction. The researcher believes that the type of narrator (author or narrator), point of view and speech of the characters are of great importance for the compositional unity in the work. She notes: “A work can be one-dimensional, fitting within the framework of one narrative type (first-person story), and can go beyond a certain type, representing a multi-layered hierarchical construction.” N.A. Kozhevnikova emphasizes: “alien speech” can belong to both the sender (spoken, internal or written speech) and the recipient (perceived, heard or read speech). The researcher identifies three main forms for conveying someone else's speech in texts: direct, indirect, improperly direct, which we will study using the example of Garshin's prose.
I.V. Trufanova in her monograph “Pragmatics of improperly direct speech” emphasizes that in modern linguistics there is no single definition of the concept of improperly direct speech. The researcher dwells on the biplane nature of the term and the interpenetration of the plans of the author and the hero in it, defining improperly direct speech as “a method of transmitting someone else’s speech, a biplane syntactic construction in which the author’s plan does not exist separately from the plan of someone else’s speech, but is merged with it.”
Let's consider the narrative functions of direct speech, which is “a way of transmitting someone else’s speech that preserves the lexical, syntactic, and intonation features of the speaker. It is important to note that “direct speech and the author’s speech are clearly distinguished”: - Live up, brother! - the doctor shouted impatiently. - You see how many of you are here (“Batman and Officer”, p. 157). - For what? For what? - he shouted. - I didn’t want harm to anyone. For what. kill me? Ooo! Oh my God! O you who were tormented before me! I pray, deliver you... (“Red Flower”, p. 235). - Leave me... Go wherever you want. I'm staying with Senya and now with Mr. Lopatin. I want to take my soul away... from you! - she suddenly cried out, seeing that Bessonov wanted to say something else. - You disgust me. Leave, leave... (“Nadezhda Nikolaevna”, p. 271). - Ugh, brothers, what kind of people! And our priests and our churches, but they have no idea of anything! Do you want a silver rup? - a soldier with a shirt in his hands shouts at the top of his lungs to a Romanian selling in an open shop. . For a shirt? Patra Frank? Four francs? (“From the memoirs of Private Ivanov,” p. 216). “Quiet, quiet, please,” she whispered. - You know, it’s all over (“Coward”, p. 85). - To Siberia!.. Isn’t it because I’m afraid of Siberia that I can’t kill you? That's not why I... I can't kill you because... how can I kill you? How can I kill you? - he said, breathless: - after all, I... (“Incident”, p.72). - Is it impossible without such expressions! - Vasily said sharply. Petrovich. - Give it to me, I’ll hide it (“Meeting”, p. 113).
The excerpts of direct speech quoted from Garshin’s prose contrast stylistically against the background of the author’s neutral one. One of the functions of direct speech, according to G.Ya. Solganika is the creation of characters (characterological means). The author's monologue ceases to be monotonous.
What works did Garshin write? and got the best answer
Answer from IRISHKA BULAKHOV[active]
Garshin made his debut in 1877 with the story “Four Days,” which immediately created his fame. This work clearly expresses a protest against war, against the extermination of man by man. Dedicated to the same motive a whole series stories: “The Orderly and the Officer”, “The Ayaslyar Case”, “From the Memoirs of Private Ivanov” and “Coward”; the hero of the latter suffers from heavy reflection and oscillations between the desire to “sacrifice himself for the people” and the fear of unnecessary and meaningless death. Garshin also wrote a number of essays, where social evil and injustice are already depicted in the background peaceful life.
“Incident” and “Nadezhda Nikolaevna” touch on the theme of a “fallen” woman. In 1883, one of his most remarkable stories appeared, “The Red Flower.” His hero, a mentally ill person, fights the world's evil, which, as it seems to him, is embodied in a red flower in the garden: just pick it and all the evil in the world will be destroyed. In “Artists” Garshin raises the question of the role of art in society and the possibility of benefiting from creativity; contrasting art with “real subjects” with “art for art’s sake”, he is looking for ways to combat social injustice. The essence of the author’s contemporary society, with personal egoism dominating it, is vividly depicted in the story “Meeting.” In the allegory tale “Attalea princeps” about a palm tree rushing towards the sun through the roof of a greenhouse and dying under the cold sky, Garshin symbolized the beauty of the struggle for freedom, although a doomed struggle. Garshin wrote a number of fairy tales and stories for children: “What Didn’t Happen”, “The Frog Traveler”, where the same Garshin theme of evil and injustice is filled with sad humor; “The Tale of Proud Haggai” (a retelling of the legend of Haggai), “The Signal” and others.
Garshin legitimized a special art form- a short story that was later fully developed by Anton Chekhov. The plots of Garshin's short stories are simple; they are always built on one basic plan, developed according to a strictly logical plan. The composition of his stories, surprisingly complete, achieves almost geometric certainty. The lack of action and complex collisions is typical for Garshin. Most of his works are written in the form of diaries, letters, confessions (for example, “Incident”, “Artists”, “Coward”, “Nadezhda Nikolaevna”, etc.). The number of characters is very limited.
Reply from Liudmila Sharukhia[guru]
Garshin made his debut in 1877 with the story “Four Days,” which immediately created his fame. This work clearly expresses a protest against war, against the extermination of man by man. A number of stories are dedicated to the same motif: “The Orderly and the Officer”, “The Ayaslyar Case”, “From the Memoirs of Private Ivanov” and “The Coward”. In 1883, one of his most remarkable stories appeared - “The Red Flower”. Garshin wrote a number of fairy tales and stories for children: “What Didn’t Happen”, “The Frog Traveler”, where the same Garshin theme of evil and injustice is filled with sad humor; “The Tale of Proud Haggai” (a retelling of the legend of Haggai), “The Signal” and others.
Reply from Nadezhda Adianova[guru]
Stories: Night, Coward, Signal, Meeting, Bears, Artists, Incident. --------
Batman and Officer, Red Flower, Four Days.
The main stages of Garshin's life and work. Russian writer, critic. Born on February 2 (14), 1855 in the estate of Pleasant Valley, Bakhmut district, Ekaterinoslav province. in a family of nobles who trace their ancestry back to the Golden Horde Murza Gorshi. His father was an officer and took part in the Crimean War of 1853–1856. Her mother, the daughter of a naval officer, took part in the revolutionary democratic movement of the 1860s. As a five-year-old child, Garshin survived family drama, which influenced the character of the future writer. The mother fell in love with the teacher of the older children P.V. Zavadsky, the organizer of the secret political society, and left her family. The father complained to the police, after which Zavadsky was arrested and exiled to Petrozavodsk on political charges. Mother moved to St. Petersburg to visit the exile. Until 1864, Garshin lived with his father on an estate near the town of Starobelsk, Kharkov province, then his mother took him to St. Petersburg and sent him to a gymnasium. In 1874 Garshin entered the St. Petersburg Mining Institute. Two years later, his literary debut took place. His first satirical essay, The True History of the Ensky Zemstvo Assembly (1876), was based on memories of provincial life. IN student years Garshin appeared in print with articles about the Itinerant artists. On the day Russia declared war on Turkey, April 12, 1877, Garshin volunteered to join the army. In August he was wounded in a battle near the Bulgarian village of Ayaslar. Personal impressions served as material for the first story about the war, Four Days (1877), which Garshin wrote in the hospital. After its publication in the October issue of the journal Otechestvennye zapiski, Garshin’s name became known throughout Russia. Having received a year's leave due to injury, Garshin returned to St. Petersburg, where he was warmly received by the writers of the "Notes of the Fatherland" circle - M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, G.I. Uspensky and others. In 1878 Garshin was promoted to officer, but was released for health reasons resigned and continued his studies as a volunteer student at St. Petersburg University. The war left a deep imprint on the receptive psyche of the writer and his work. Garshin’s stories, simple in plot and composition, amazed readers with the extreme nakedness of the hero’s feelings. The first-person narration, using diary entries, and attention to the most painful emotional experiences created the effect of absolute identity between the author and the hero. In literary criticism of those years, the phrase was often found: “Garshin writes in blood.” The writer combined the extremes of manifestation of human feelings: a heroic, sacrificial impulse and awareness of the abomination of war (Four Days); a sense of duty, attempts to evade it and awareness of the impossibility of this (Coward, 1879). Man's helplessness in the face of the elements of evil, emphasized by tragic endings, became the main theme not only of the military, but also of Garshin's later stories. For example, the story The Incident (1878) is a street scene in which the writer shows the hypocrisy of society and the savagery of the crowd in condemning a prostitute. Even when portraying people of art, artists, Garshin did not find a solution to his painful spiritual search. The story The Artists (1879) is imbued with pessimistic thoughts about the uselessness of real art. His hero talented artist Ryabinin, gives up painting and leaves for the village to teach peasant children. In the story Attalea princeps (1880) Garshin symbolic form expressed his worldview. A freedom-loving palm tree, in an effort to escape from a glass greenhouse, breaks through the roof and dies. Having a romantic attitude towards reality, Garshin tried to break the vicious circle of life's issues, but his painful psyche and complex character returned the writer to a state of despair and hopelessness. This condition was aggravated by the events taking place in Russia. In February 1880, revolutionary terrorist I.O. Mlodetsky made an attempt on the life of the head of the Supreme Administrative Commission, Count M.T. Loris-Melikov. Garshin, as a famous writer, obtained an audience with the count to ask for pardon for the criminal in the name of mercy and civil peace. The writer convinced the high dignitary that the execution of the terrorist would only lengthen the chain of useless deaths in the struggle between the government and the revolutionaries. After Mlodetsky’s execution, Garshin’s manic-depressive psychosis worsened. Traveling through the Tula and Oryol provinces did not help. The writer was placed in Oryol, and then in Kharkov and St. Petersburg psychiatric hospitals. After a relative recovery, Garshin did not return to creativity for a long time. In 1882, his collection of Stories was published, which caused heated debate among critics. Garshin was condemned for the pessimism and gloomy tone of his works. The populists used the writer’s work to use his example to show how a modern intellectual is tormented and tormented by remorse. In August-September 1882, at the invitation of I.S. Turgenev, Garshin lived and worked on the story From the Memoirs of Private Ivanov (1883) in Spassky-Lutovinovo. In the winter of 1883, Garshin married medical student N.M. Zolotilova and entered the service as secretary of the office of the Congress of Railway Representatives. The writer spent a lot of mental energy on the story The Red Flower (1883), in which the hero, at the cost of his own life, destroys all the evil concentrated, as his fevered imagination imagines, in three poppy flowers growing in the hospital yard. In subsequent years, Garshin sought to simplify his narrative style. Stories appeared written in the spirit of Tolstoy's folk stories - The Tale of the Proud Haggai (1886), The Signal (1887). The children's fairy tale The Frog Traveler (1887) became the writer's last work. Garshin died in St. Petersburg on March 24 (April 5), 1888.
Garshin “Red Flower” and “Artists”. His allegorical story “The Red Flower” became a textbook. a mentally ill person in a psychiatric hospital fights the world's evil in the form of dazzling red poppies in the hospital flower bed. Characteristic of Garshin (and this is by no means only an autobiographical moment) is the depiction of a hero on the verge of madness. The point is not so much the illness, but the fact that the writer’s person is unable to cope with the inescapability of evil in the world. Contemporaries appreciated the heroism of Garshin's characters: they try to resist evil, despite their own weakness. It is madness that turns out to be the beginning of rebellion, since, according to Garshin, it is impossible to rationally comprehend evil: the person himself is drawn into it - and not only by social forces, but also, no less, and perhaps more important, by internal forces. He himself is partly a bearer of evil - sometimes contrary to his own ideas about himself. The irrational in a person’s soul makes him unpredictable; the outburst of this uncontrollable element is not only a rebellion against evil, but also evil itself. Garshin loved painting, wrote articles about it, supporting the Wanderers. He gravitated towards painting and prose - not only making artists his heroes ("Artists", "Nadezhda Nikolaevna"), but also masterfully mastering verbal plasticity. Pure art, which Garshin almost identified with handicraft, he contrasted realistic art, which was closer to him, rooting for the people. Art that can touch the soul and disturb it. From art, he, a romantic at heart, demands a shock effect in order to amaze the “clean, sleek, hateful crowd” (Ryabinin’s words from the story “Artists”).
Garshin “Coward” and “Four Days”. In Garshin's writings, a person is in a state of mental turmoil. In the first story, “Four Days,” written in a hospital and reflecting the writer’s own impressions, the hero is wounded in battle and awaits death, while the corpse of the Turk he killed is decomposing nearby. This scene was often compared to the scene from War and Peace, where Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, wounded in the Battle of Austerlitz, looks at the sky. Garshin’s hero also looks at the sky, but his questions are not abstractly philosophical, but completely earthly: why war? why was he forced to kill this man, towards whom he had no hostile feelings and, in fact, innocent of anything? This work clearly expresses a protest against war, against the extermination of man by man. A number of stories are dedicated to the same motif: “The Orderly and the Officer”, “The Ayaslyar Case”, “From the Memoirs of Private Ivanov” and “The Coward”; the hero of the latter suffers from heavy reflection and oscillations between the desire to “sacrifice himself for the people” and the fear of unnecessary and meaningless death. Garshin’s military theme is passed through the crucible of conscience, through the soul, confused before the incomprehensibility of this unknown, premeditated and unnecessary massacre. Meanwhile, the Russian-Turkish War of 1877 was started with the noble goal of helping our Slavic brothers get rid of the Turkish yoke. Garshin is not concerned about political motives, but about existential questions. The character does not want to kill other people, does not want to go to war (the story “Coward”). Nevertheless, he, obeying the general impulse and considering it his duty, signs up as a volunteer and dies. The meaninglessness of this death haunts the author. But what is significant is that this absurdity is not isolated in the general structure of existence. In the same story, "Coward" a medical student dies of gangrene that began with a toothache. These two events are parallel, and it is in their artistic conjunction that one of Garshin’s main questions is highlighted - about the nature of evil. This question tormented the writer all his life. It is no coincidence that his hero, a reflective intellectual, protests against world injustice, embodied in certain faceless forces that lead a person to death and destruction, including self-destruction. Exactly a specific person. Personality. Face. the realism of Garshin's manner. His work is characterized by precision of observation and definite expression of thought. He has few metaphors and comparisons; instead, he uses simple designations of objects and facts. A short, polished phrase, without subordinate clauses in the descriptions. "Hot. The sun is burning. The wounded man opens his eyes and sees bushes, a high sky” (“Four Days”).
Ivanov Semyon Ivanovich - main character story "Signal" by Garshin. He former soldier, orderly. Semyon Ivanovich becomes a “watchman on the railway.” He lives, “a sick and broken man,” together with his wife Arina, in a booth that has “about half a tenth of arable land.” Semyon’s worldview combines the eternal peasant attraction to the land with an awareness of the responsibility of his new “iron” position. His philosophy: “to whomever the Lord gives what talent-destiny, so it is.”
Another of his distance neighbors is “a young man,” “thin and wiry,” Vasily Stepanovich Spiridov. He is convinced: “It’s not talent-fate that is boring you and me forever, but people.<...>If you blame all bad things on God, but sit and endure it yourself, then, brother, that’s not being a man, but being a beast.”
Having quarreled with his superiors, Vasily leaves the service and goes to Moscow to seek “control for himself.” Apparently to no avail: a few days later he returns and unscrews the rail just before the arrival of a passenger train. Semyon notices this and tries to prevent the crash: he wets a handkerchief with his own blood and with such a red flag goes out to meet the train. He loses consciousness from severe bleeding, and then the flag is picked up by Vasily, who was watching what was happening from afar. The train has stopped. The last phrase of the story is the words of Vasily: “Tie me up, I turned away the rail.”
Garshin’s story “The Signal” became a textbook reading for teenagers, but its interpretation by Soviet literary scholars was rather simplified. To the routine and meaningless phrase that in “Signal” Garshin calls for “heroism, for self-sacrifice for the good of the people,” was added the consideration that “Semyon is shown as a supporter of meek humility and is opposed to a person who passionately hates the masters of modern life. At the same time, the supporter of struggle comes to crime, and the preacher of humility - to the feat of self-sacrifice.” Garshin is accused of following the “reactionary Tolstoy theory” of “non-resistance to evil through violence.”
However, the content of the story indicates slightly different goals of the author: Vasily’s conflicts with his superiors are often caused by his character, his rather free attitude towards his own responsibilities. And his crime is not commensurate with the insult inflicted on him. It seems that here Garshin follows not so much the “Tolstoyism” not loved by the ideologists of Bolshevism and their associates, but expresses a conviction generally characteristic of Russian writers of the 2nd half of the 19th century: any radicalism is destructive, it brings only evil and has no moral justification.
It is for the sake of affirming this idea that Garshin gives such a symbolic, largely literary ending in “Signal” (was it really necessary for Semyon to wet the handkerchief with blood?! Is it really that a man on the rails, waving any object, is not an alarm signal for the driver?!) . Where there is radicalism, there are crimes, there is the blood of innocent victims, says the writer. Decades later, red with blood, the Seeds flag is in Vasily’s hand fatally began to express the meaning of the bloody radicalism of the 20th century. - Bolshevism, and Semyon’s feat itself revealed its heavy similarity with the usual “feat” Soviet era: as a rule, this is the self-sacrifice of some because of the criminality of others (and not resistance to the elements, etc.).
Works from the list:
- Garshin “Red Flower”, “Artists”, “Coward”.
- Korolenko “Makar’s Dream”, “Paradox” (one to choose from)
Ticket plan:
- General characteristics.
- Garshin.
- Korolenko.
- Garshin “Red Flower”, “Artists”.
- Genres.
1. The motley, seemingly chaotically developing literature of the 80s and early 90s was born on the basis of reality, marked by the instability of social and ideological processes. The uncertainty in the socio-economic field, on the one hand, and the acute sense of the catastrophic nature of the political moment (the end of the revolutionary populist movement, the beginning of a brutal government reaction), which lasted until the first half of the 90s, on the other, deprived the spiritual life of society of integrity and certainty. The feeling of timelessness, of an ideological dead end, became especially acute in the second half of the 80s: time passed, but there was no light. Literature developed under conditions of severe censorship and psychological oppression, but still sought new paths.
Among the writers who started creative path during these years - V. Garshin (1855-1888), V. Korolenko (1853-1921), A. Chekhov (1860-1904), younger A. Kuprin (1870-1938), L. Andreev (1871-1919 ), I. Bunin (1870-1953), M. Gorky (1868-1936).
In the literature of this period, such masterpieces appear as - in prose - “The Brothers Karamazov” by Dostoevsky, “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” by Tolstoy, stories and stories by Leskov, Garshin, Chekhov; in drama - “Talents and Admirers”, “Guilty Without Guilt” by Ostrovsky, Tolstoy’s “The Power of Darkness”; in poetry - “Evening Lights” by Fet; in journalism and the scientific and documentary genre - Dostoevsky’s speech about Pushkin, Chekhov’s “Sakhalin Island”, articles about the famine of Tolstoy and Korolenko.
This era is characterized by the combination of literary tradition with the search for new paths. Garshin and Korolenko did a lot to enrich realistic art with romantic elements, the late Tolstoy and Chekhov solved the problem of updating realism by deepening its internal properties. The echoes of Dostoevsky’s work were especially clear in the prose of the 80s and 90s. Burning questions of reality, a scrupulous analysis of human suffering in a society torn apart by contradictions, the gloomy coloring of landscapes, especially urban ones, all this is in different shapes found a response in the stories and essays of G. Uspensky and Garshin, the aspiring Kuprin.
Criticism of the 80s - early 90s noted the Turgenev and Tolstoy beginnings in the stories of Garshin, Korolenko, Chekhov; in works written under the impression Russian-Turkish war 1877-1878, found similarities with the author’s military descriptions “ Sevastopol stories"; V humorous stories Chekhov's dependence on Shchedrin's satire.
The “ordinary” hero and his daily life, consisting of everyday little things, is an artistic discovery of realism late XIX c., associated most of all with creative experience Chekhov, was prepared by the collective efforts of writers of various directions. The work of writers who tried to combine realistic methods of depiction with romantic ones (Garshin, Korolenko) also played a role in this process.
2. The personality and literary fate of Vsevolod Mikhailovich Garshin (1855-1888) are characteristic of the era under consideration. Born into an old noble family, he early learned the life and customs of the military environment (his father was an officer). These childhood impressions were recalled to him when he wrote about the events of the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-1878, in which he participated as a volunteer.
What Garshin took away from the war was not so much the joy of victory as a feeling of bitterness and pity for tens of thousands dead people. He fully endowed this feeling with his heroes who survived the bloody events of the war. The whole point of Garshin’s war stories (“Four Days”, « Coward" , 1879, “The Orderly and the Officer, 1880, “From the Memoirs of Private Ivanov,” 1883) - in the spiritual shock of a person: in the horrors of wartime, he begins to see signs of trouble in peaceful life, which he had not noticed before. The heroes of these stories seem to have their eyes opened. This is what happened to Private Ivanov, a typical Garshin intellectual: the war made him feel hatred for the senseless cruelty with which military leaders committed lawlessness in the name of “patriotism”, and awakened in him compassion for weak and powerless soldiers. Garshin’s entire work is permeated with burning pity for the unjustly offended and a passionate desire to find the path to “universal happiness.”
One of the most humane writers in Russia, Garshin experienced as a personal misfortune the arrests of Russian writers, the closure of Otechestvennye Zapiski, the defeat of the populist movement, and the execution of S. Perovskaya and A. Zhelyabov. When it became known that student I. Mlodetsky was sentenced to death for an attempt on the life of the head of the Supreme Administrative Commission M. Loris-Melikov (1880), Garshin hastened to the “velvet dictator” with a plea to spare the young life and even received a promise to postpone the execution. But the execution took place - and this had such an effect on Garshin that he suffered a severe attack of mental illness. He ended his life tragically: he threw himself down a flight of stairs in a moment of unbearable melancholy and died in agony.
On the scale of the history of Russian literature short life Garshin, a man and an artist, was like a flash of lightning. She illuminated the pain and aspirations of an entire generation suffocating in the lead air of the 80s.
Lecture by Makeev:
A man of very interesting and tragic fate. He was mentally ill. Severe attacks. Difficult family history. Early signs of talent and early signs of special sensitivity. He volunteered for the Balkan Wars, where he was wounded. A model Russian intellectual. The meeting with Loris-Melikov is the most famous act. There was an attempt on Loris-Melikov's life. Wlodicki was sentenced to death. Garshin made his way to Loris-Melikov and asked to pardon Vloditsky. Came to Yasnaya Polyana talk to Tolstoy. He looked after the sick Natsin. Iconic image of the victim. Garshin acted as art critic(review of “Boyaryna Morozova”). He committed suicide. Lived for 33 years. This is the case when the figure of the author is more important than his works. If Garshin had not been such a person, he would not have occupied such an important place in Russian literature. There is a feeling of secondary nature in his work. Tolstoy's influence is noticeable. Intentional secondaryness. A conscious attitude toward it. Priority of ethics over aesthetics. As long as phenomena exist, we must talk about them. Great Literature immoral. Polemics with social Darwinism. An interesting intellectual view (the story “Coward”). A person is faced with a dilemma - he cannot go to war and he cannot not go to it. He goes to war and dies without firing a single shot, sharing the fate of the victims.
Story "Artists". Alternation of artists' monologues. Ryabinin gives up painting and becomes a rural teacher.
3. Penetration into corners of Russian reality hitherto unexplored by literature, embracing new social strata, psychological types, etc. - characteristic feature the works of almost all writers of this period.
This is reflected in the works of Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko. He was born in Zhitomir, graduated from high school in Rovno and continued his studies in St. Petersburg, but in 1876 he was sentenced to exile for participating in a collective protest of students of the Petrovsky Agricultural and Forestry Academy. And his wanderings began: Vologda province, Kronstadt, Vyatka province, Siberia, Perm, Yakutia... In 1885 the writer settled in Nizhny Novgorod, in 1895 he moved to St. Petersburg. Literary and social activities Korolenko's work continued for over 40 years. He died in Poltava.
Collections of Korolenko’s works were reprinted many times: “Essays and Stories” (book 1 in 1887 and book 2 in 1893), his “Pavlovsk Sketches” (1890) and “In the Hungry Year” ( 1893-1894). The best Siberian essays and stories by Korolenko - "Wonderful"(1880), "The Killer" (1882), "Makar's Dream"“Sokolinets” (1885), “The River Is Playing” (1892), “At-Davan” (1892), etc. - took an outstanding place in a number of works exploring the social life and psychology of the population of the vast country.
In the stories of Korolenko, who created vivid images freedom-loving people from among the people capable of true heroism (“Sokolinets”, i.e. “Sakhalinian”, in story of the same name, a dissolute ferryman from Vetluga - “The River Plays”), clearly shows the author’s intention to synthesize romanticism with realism.
Makeev's lecture:
Korolenko.
Very secondary creativity, little original. But very good man. A figure famous for his public position. Acted as a public defender in the Beilis case. Won the case. A strong humanistic position. Not an easy position.
4. The literature of the 80s is characterized not only by an expansion of the geographical scope of the depicted, social and professional circle of characters, but also by an appeal to new literature psychological types and situations. Grotesque forms born from the imagination of a person suffering from mental illness reflect in their own way the essential features of the era and sound a passionate protest against arbitrariness over the individual. So, the hero of Garshin’s story "Red Flower"(1883) takes on the mission to overcome all the evil of the world, concentrated, as he dreams, in a beautiful plant.
Another way to enrich the picture of the depicted reality lay through a hero involved in art. If the writer’s choice fell on a subtle, impressionable nature, possessing, in addition to artistic vision, a high sense of justice and intolerance towards evil, then this gave the whole plot social poignancy and special expressiveness (“The Blind Musician” Korolenko, 1886; "Artists" Garshina, 1879).
5. The most numerous of the genres of “reliable” literature in the 80s was the everyday scene, imbued with humor. Although this genre became widespread in the works of writers of the “natural school” and was then adopted by the democratic prose of the 60s (V. Sleptsov, G. Uspensky), it has only now become a mass phenomenon, having, however, somewhat lost its former significance and seriousness. Only in Chekhov's sketch was this genre revived on a new artistic basis.
Form of confession, diary, notes, memoirs, reflecting interest in psychology modern man who experienced life and ideological drama, responds to the alarming ideological atmosphere of the era. Publication of original documents, personal diaries aroused keen interest (for example, the diary of the young Russian artist M. Bashkirtseva, who died in Paris; notes of the great anatomist and surgeon N. I. Pirogov, etc.). The form of diary, confession, notes, etc. is addressed by L. Tolstoy (“Confession”, 1879) and Shchedrin (“Name”, 1884 - the final essay in “Little Things in Life”). Although these works are very different in style, what brings them together is that in both cases the great writers sincerely and truthfully talk about themselves and their experiences. The form of confession was used in L. Tolstoy’s “Kreutzer Sonata” and in Chekhov’s “A Boring Story” (with a characteristic subtitle: “From the Notes of an Old Man”); Both Garshin (“Nadezhda Nikolaevna”, 1885) and Leskov (“Notes of an Unknown”, 1884) turned to the “notes”. This form answered two artistic tasks at once: to attest to the “authenticity” of the material and to recreate the character’s experiences.