Article

Name: Mythopoetics of Shukshin’s autobiographic cycle “From the childhood years of Ivan Popov”

Authors: T. A. Bogumil

Altai State Pedagogical University, Barnaul, Russian Federation

In the section Study of literature

Abstract: The paper describes the autobiographical features of the cycle “From the childhood years of Ivan Popov.” The autobiographical dominant can be traced at different levels: factual (thematic), compositional, stylistic, autopsychological. It is proved that the extension of the cycle in the American edition of V. M. Shukshin’s prose (“Stories from a Siberian Village,” 1996) is illegitimate because the subjects of speaking and the structure of the stories “Letter” and “Solar rings” are different from the stories of the cycle. The study of the mythological subtext of the stories shows the writer’s intuitive support for the archaic sacrificial ritual. The process of storytelling in the cycle is associated with the atonement of childish guilt (dislike for the stepfather, theft, lying, enmity, revenge, etc.). The deep structure of each story and the whole cycle is built on an invari-ant scheme: the initial “trouble,” “shortage,” conflict to the final is eliminated through the ransom sacrifice. The father, stepfather, one-legged chairman, bull, cow act as a substitute for sacrifice. They all embody the semantics of plant-animal-god. A child’s empathy for the “scapegoat” suffering death, disease, damage of another kind, awakens in the initiated adolescent a mature sense of pity and love for man and animal, a sense of responsibility and participation in the world. In the final story of the cycle, the symbolic victim is the narrator himself. Moral degeneration of the hero takes place, the victory of the new and the future over the old and the past. The circular scheme opens up into a spiral of the emergence of the personality of the authorized hero and the expansion of the world in which he exists.

Keywords: V. M. Shukshin, mythopoetics, autobiographical prose, “From the childhood years of Ivan Popov”

Bibliography:

Averintsev S. S. Arkhetipy [Archetypes]. In: Mify narodov mira: entsiklopediya: V 2 t. [Myths of the peoples of the world: encyclopedia: in 2 vols]. Moscow, Sov. entsikl., 1987, vol. 1, pp. 110–111.

Broytman S. N. Istoricheskaya poetika [Historical poetics]. In: Teoriya literatury: V 2 t. [Theory of literature: in 2 vols]. N. D. Tamarchenko (Ed.). Moscow, Akademiya, 2004, vol. 2, 368 p.

Ginzburg L. Ya. O psikhologicheskoy proze [About psychological prose]. Moscow, INTRADA, 1999, 416 p.

Grishayev V. F. Shukshin. Srostki. Piket [Shukshin. Srostki. Piket]. Barnaul, Alt. kn. izd., 1994, 152 p.

Domanskiy Yu. V. Smysloobrazuyushchaya rol’ arkhetipicheskikh znacheniy v literaturnom tekste [Meaning-forming role of archetypical values in the literary text]. Tver, TvSU Publ., 2001, 100 p.

Eliade M. Mif o vechnom vozvrashchenii: arkhetipy i povtoryayemost’ [The myth of eternal return: archetypes and repeatability]. St. Petersburg, Aleteyya, 1998, 249 p.

Egan S. Mirror Talk: Genres of Crisis in Contemporary Autobiography. Chapel Hill, UNC Press Books, 1999, 275 p.

Frazer J. G. Zolotaya vetv’ [The golden bough]. Moscow, Politizdat, 1986, 703 p.

Freydenberg O. M. Mif i literatura drevnosti [Myth and Antiquity]. Moscow, Vost. lit., 1978, 608 p.

Freydenberg O. M. Poetika syuzheta i zhanra [Poetics of the plot and genre]. Moscow, Labirint, 1997, 448 p.

Givens J. Provincial polemics: Folk discourse in the life and novels of Vasili Shukshin. Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1993, 389 p.

Kalashnikova T. A. “Iz detskikh let Ivana Popova” [“From the childhood years of Ivan Popov”]. In: Tvorchestvo V. M. Shukshina: entsiklopedicheskiy slovar’-spravochnik: V 3 t. [Creativity of Shushin: encyclopedic dictionary-reference: in 3 vols]. Barnaul, AltSU Publ., 2007, vol. 3, pp. 113–116.

Kovtun N. V. Russkaya traditsionalistskaya proza 20–21vekov: genezis, poetika, konteksty [Russian traditionalist prose of the 20th – 21st centuries: genesis, poetics, contexts]. Moscow, FLINTA, Nauka, 2017, 600 p.

Korobov V. I. Vasiliy Shukshin: Veshcheye slovo [Vasilii Shukshin: an eternal word]. Moscow, Molodaya gvardiya, 2009, 420 p.

Kozlova S. M. “Iz detskikh let Ivana Popova” [“From the childhood years of Ivan Popov”]. In: Shukshinskaya entsiklopediya [Encyclopedia of Shukshin]. Barnaul, “Barnaul” Publ., 2011, pp. 143–146.

Kozubovskaya G. P. Mifopoetika russkoy literatury: zhanr i motiv [Mythopoetics of Russian Literature: Genre and Motif]. Barnaul, AltSU Publ., 2016, 267 p.

Kulyapin A. I. Korova [Сow]. In: Tvorchestvo V. M. Shukshina: entsiklopedicheskiy slovar’-spravochnik: V 3 t. [Creativity of Shushin: encyclopedic dictionary-reference: in 3 vols]. Barnaul, AltSU Publ., 2006, Vol. 2 pp. 100–101.

Kulyapin A. I. Tvorcheskaya evolyutsiya V. M. Shukshina [Creative evolution of V. M. Shukshin]. Ishim, P. P. Ershov’s ISPI Publ., 2012, 204 p.

Levi-Stross K. Strukturnaya antropologiya [Structural anthropology]. Moscow, Eksmo-Press, 2001, 512 p.

Mar’in D. V. Nesobstvenno-khudozhestvennoye tvorchestvo V. M. Shukshina [Nonfiction creative works of V. M. Shukshin]. Barnaul, AltSU Publ., 2015, 389 p.

Meletinskiy E. M. O proiskhozhdenii literaturno-mifologicheskikh syuzhetnykh arkhetipov [About the origin of literary-mythological plot archetypes]. In: Literaturnye arkhetipy i uni- versalii [Literary archetypes and universals]. Moscow, RSUH Publ., 2001, pp. 73–150.

Nemec Ignashev D. The Art of Vasilij Shukshin: Volya through Song. In: Slavic and East European Journal, 1988, vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 415–427.

Nikolina N. A. Poetika russkoy avtobiograficheskoy prozy [Poetics of Russian autobiographical prose]. Moscow, Nauka, 2002, 424 p.

On pokhodil na svoyu rodinu: zemlyaki o Shukshine [He was like his homeland: countrymen about Shukshin]. Barnaul, Alt. kn. izd., 1989, 248 p.

Osipova N. O. Mifopoetika kak sfera poetiki i metod issledovaniya [Mythopoetics as a sphere of poetics and a method of research]. Social and Human Sciences. Domestic and foreign literature. Series 7. Literature. 2000, no. 3, pp. 51–52.

Rybal’chenko T. L. Tema voyny v rasskazakh V. Shukshina [The theme of the war in the stories of V. Shukshin]. In: Shukshinskiy vestnik [Shukshin herald]. Barnaul, Azbuka, 2011, pp. 99–117.

Svarovskaya A. S. Tip kolkhoznogo predsedatelya v proze V. M. Shukshina [The type of the collective farm chairman in V. M. Shukshin’s prose]. In: Tvorchestvo V. M. Shukshina v mezhnatsional’nom kul’turnom prostranstve [V. Shukshin’s creativity in the interethnic cultural space]. Barnaul, Azbuka, 2009, pp. 230–234.

Shukshin V. M. Sobraniye sochineniy: V 9 t. [Collected Works: in 9 vols]. Barnaul, “Barnaul” Publ., 2014, vol. 3, 376 p.

Shukshin V. Stories from a Siberian Village. DeKalb, Northern Illinois University Press, 1996, 256 р.

Starobinski J. “The Style of Autobiography”. In: Olney J. (Ed.) Autobiography: Essays Theo-retical and Critical. Princeton, Princeton UP, 1980, pp. 73–83.

Stephenson J. Portrait of the Artist as Artist: The Celebration of Autobiography. Canadian Theatre Review, 2010, January, iss. 141, pp. 49–53.

Varlamov A. N. Shukshin. Moscow, Molodaya gvardiya, 2015. 399 s.

Volkova N. A. Tekstovaya modal’nost’ v aspekte ucheniya o pervichnosti – vtorichnosti teksta (na materiale tsikla rasskazov V. M. Shukshina “Iz detskikh let Ivana Popova”) [Textual modality in the aspect of the doctrine of primary – secondary text (on the material of the cycle of short stories by V. M. Shukshin “From the Childhood years of Ivan Popov”)]. Abstract of Cand. philol. sci. diss. Gorno-Altaysk, 2007, 19 p.