Article

Name: Semiotics of chess in the literature of the 19th century: to the interpretation of Nikolay Aksharumov “The Player”

Authors: Alexey E. Kozlov

Novosibirsk State Pedagogical University, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation

In the section Study of literature

Abstract: The paper is devoted to the investigation of the semiotics of chess-game in the literature and culture of the 1st part of the 19th century. The formation of the semiotics of chess is considered in European and Russian literature. It can be stated that the semiotics of chess is reflected in 1) special literature and periodicals; 2) literary mode of life (chess as QR-code of the 19th century); 3) the plot of the narrative prose. The last aspect is of particular interest since it allows one to judge the formation of a reader’s subculture, consisting of amateur chess-makers and professionals. This principle was reflected in the epistolary novel of Goethe’s younger contemporary, W. Heinze, in his novel “Anastasia und das Schachspiel” (1803). Melodramatic intrigue, by virtue of its triviality, becomes secondary, giving way to the intrigue of another level related to the study of the fundamentals of chess. The second part of the paper is devoted to the investigation of the plot and narration features of the novel “The Player” (“Igrok,” 1858) of Nikolai Dmitrievich Aksharumov. In particular, three levels of the plot organization of “The Player” are considered. Firstly, the level of allusions and reminiscences composing the “German” background of the story and accumulating the most common plot situations is analyzed. Secondly, the reflection of the aesthetic program of esthetics is considered. Thirdly, the system of references forming the “closest circle” of reading is studied. In conclusion, the hypothesis is made that the category of “ideal reader” was more closely matched by a real person – chess-master A. D. Petrov.

Keywords: Russian literature of the 19th century, story and plot, classics and fiction, secondariness and alternative, semiotics of chess, Nikolay Aksharumov

Bibliography:

Akhsharumov N. D. Igrok [Player]. Otechestvennyye zapiski. 1858, vol. 121, no. 11-12.

Akhsharumov N. D. O poraboshchenii iskusstva [About the enslavement of art]. Otechestvennyye zapiski. 1858, no. 7.

Butrimov I. A. O shakhmatnoy igre [About a chess game]. St. Petersburg, 1821.

Eykhenbaum Ya. Gakrab (Bitva). Poema o shakhmatnoy igre [Gakrab (Battle). A poem about a chess game]. Moscow, 2011.

Karpov N. A. Romanticheskie konteksty Nabokova [The romantic context of the Nabokov prose]. St. Petersburg, SPbU Publ., 2017.

Kiseleva L. N. Roman kak vozmozhnaya/ideal’naya model’ avtobiografii [Novel as potential model of fiction/idealistic autobiography]. In: Semiotika povedeniya i literaturnyye strategii: Lotmanovskiye chteniya – XXII [Semiotics of behavior and literary strategies: Lotman readings – 22]. Moscow, 2017, pp. 240–255.

Kozlov A. E. “Akhsharumovskiye variatsii” v russkoy literature: “V mrachnom zamke Nabokova” [“Akhsharum variations” in Russian literature: “In the dark castle of Nabokov”]. In: Syuzhetologiya i syuzhetografiya. 2017, no. 2, pp. 82–90.

Lavrova S. Yu. Metafora shakhmatnoy igry kak znakovyy komponent fantaziynogo diskursa (na materiale romana N. D. Akhsharumova “Igrok”) [Metaphor of chess-game as sign component of fantastic discourse (on the material of novel “The player” of N. D. Aksharumov)]. Cherepovets State Univ. Bulletin. 2016, no. 5(74), pp. 89–91.

Lotman Y. M. O tipologicheskom izuchenii literatury [On typological investigation of literature]. In: Lotman Yu. M. O russkoy literature [About Russian literature]. St. Petersburg, Iskusstvo, 2012, pp. 766–764.

Lotman Y. M. Struktura khudozhestvennogo teksta [Structure of the artistic text]. Moscow, Iskusstvo, 1970.

Mednis N. E. Poetika i semiotika russkoy literatury [Poetics and semiotics of the Russian literature]. Moscow, LRC Publ. House, 2011.

Nikolaeva E. G. Elementy koda povesti Pushkina “Pikovaya dama” v tvorchestve Dostoevskogo [Elements of the code of Pushkin’s novel The Queen of Spades in the works of Dostoevsky]. Cand. philol. sci. diss. Tomsk, 2007.

Nikolaeva T. M. “Sredinnaya proza” i paradigma sotsializirovannykh oppozitsiy [“Middle prose” and paradigm of social oppositions]. In: Vtoraya proza. Russkaya proza 20–30-kh godov XX veka [Second Prose. Russian prose of the 20–30s of the 20th century]. Trento, Dipartimento di Scienze Filologiche e Storiche, 1995, pp. 123–139.

Novalis. Genrikh fon Ofterdingen. Moscow, Nauka, 2003.

Pecherskaya T. I., Nikanorova E. K. Syuzhety i motivy russkoy klassicheskoy literatury [Plots and motifs of the Russian classic literature]. Novosibirsk, 2010.

Shatin Yu. V. Granitsy teksta kak semioticheskoe ponyatie [Borders as semiotic concepts]. In: Russkaya literatura v zerkale semiotiki [Russian literature in semiotics mirror]. Moscow, LRC Publ. House, 2015.

Toporov V. N. “Bednaya Liza” Karamzina: opyt prochteniya [“Poor Liza” by Karamzin: experience of reading]. Moscow, 2006.

Volodina N. V. Kriteriy pol’zy v otsenke iskusstva russkoy literaturnoy kritikoy 1860-kh gg. [The criterion of usefulness in the evaluation of art in the Russian literary criticism of the 1860s]. Izvestia. Ural Federal Univ. Journal. Ser. 2. Humanities and Arts. 2018, vol. 172, no. 20(1), pp. 93–107.