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“Angelic Creations” in the V. Rasputin’s Prose: Specificity of Representation, Functions
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DOI: 10.26170/FK20-02-02
Abstract: The purpose of the article is to analyze the typology of messengers (from Old Greek: ἄγγελος, angelos) in V. Rasputin’s prose: from pagan mediators, fools to saints and “angelic creatures”. In spiritual culture, the messenger is “a superhuman being, an intermediary between man and God”. The paper examines the poetics of meeting and communicating with the messengers (chronotope and circumstances), changing their functions. The originality of the message that the messengers reveal to the heroes is described. The importance of images of the messengers, whose efforts make the connection between times, is determined by the specifics of the writer’s worldview, which is based on the belief in the unity of the world and man. Heroes see prophetic dreams, visions, communicate with deceased ancestors, which matches with archaic visionary practices.
Messengers in the artist’s prose have their own special functionality, which is emphasized by the typology. The messengers-neurotransmitters bind to different worlds, easily passing through the border (a wise raven from the story “What to convey to the crow?”); wise old women, fools can approach the mystery, open the borders of existence to the limits of mystery. Angelic creatures stand out of the indicated range. Natasha from the story with the same title, the girl Katya from “The Unexpectedly” (“Suddenly”), nurses with “iconpainted faces” from the story “In the Hospital”, whose appearance among people was initially defined as a miracle. The meeting with the angel is built on the model of the tester and the test subject, instantly revealing the spiritual potential of the individual. Images of the angels also differ from each other. If the images of Natasha and the nurses are correlated with the figure of the guardian angel, then the girl Katya is associated with the image of the Witness of God. The appearance of the Witness on the Earth occurs in tragic times. The emphasis on the angelic images in the master’s later work is associated with an increase in the tragedy of the worldview, he can’t help seeing the thinning of faith and the powerlessness of the people. The writer falls into despair, but hopes for the possibility of a miracle, the nostalgia for which permeates all his later prose.
Key words: VISIONARY PRACTICES; CHRONOTOPES; GUARDIAN ANGELS; STORIES; RUSSIAN WRITERS; LITERARY CREATION; LITERARY IMAGES.
For citation
Kovtun, N. V. (2020). “Angelic Creations” in the V. Rasputin’s Prose: Specificity of Representation, Functions. In Philological Class. 2020. Vol. 25 ⋅ №2. P. 19-32. DOI 10.26170/FK20-02-02.