Socialist-realistic projections of Andrei Turgenev’s blockade novel “Sleep and believe”

Annotation

In the proposed work, based on the material of the novel by Andrei Turgenev (the pen name of the famous modern postmodern critic Vyacheslav Kuritsyn), the socialist realist projections (= canons) laid by the “newly named” prose writer in the foundation of the serious blockade theme of the novel — the semi-realistic and semi-mystical text “Sleep and Believe” (2008) are considered. The setting of the motifs of “sleep” and “faith”, which are central and end-to-end for the entire narrative, explicates the axiological accents of Kuritsyn-Turgenev’s understanding and perception of the blockade theme (and modern consciousness as a whole) from new positions, from new ideological and ethical-aesthetic attitudes. As a result, the work actualizes the unreality (from the point of view of the creator of the novel) of the ideas and ideals that brought up the generation of Soviet people of the pre-war period who defended Leningrad. The analysis shows that the novel “Sleep and Believe” was created by Kuritsyn-Turgenev according to the matrix of a typical model of Socialist realism literature, but supplemented and modernized by tactics of overcoming (violating) ethical and aesthetic prohibitions, going beyond the traditional ideological boundaries of time. As the analysis demonstrated, Kuritsyn plays with the reader in a postmodern way in the text of the novel, eventually obscuring the theme of the blockade with the theme of love, which played out against the background of the tragic events of the besieged city. However, despite the identified flaws in the artistry of the text of the “young” prose writer, it is argued that Turgenev-Kuritsyn’s novel is able to take its special place in the embodiment and development of the blockade theme of Russian prose. The analysis of the novel by a modern novelist is carried out against the background of the traditional coverage of the blockade theme in Russian Soviet military literature (A. Chakovsky, D. Granin, A. Adamovich, etc.).

Keywords

V. Kuritsyn, A. Turgenev, the blockade novel, the matrix of socialist realist prose, canon and renovation.

Literature

1. Aver’yanova, E. A. (2012). Neskazki Tat’yany Tolstoj [Not-tales of Tatiana Tolstoy]. — St.-Petersburg: Filologicheskij f-t SPbGU Publ. — 126 s. (In Russian)
2. Bibergan, E. S. (2011). Rycar’ bez straha i upreka. Hudozhestvennoe svoeobrazie prozy Vladimira Sorokina [A knight without fear and reproach. The artistic originality of Vladimir Sorokin’s prose.]. — St. Petersburg: Filologicheskij f-t SPbGU Publ. — 224 s. — (In Russian).
3. Bibergan, E. S., Bogdanova, O. V. (2020). “Konceptual’nyj proekt” Vladimira Sorokina [“Conceptual project” by Vladimir Sorokin.]. — St. Petersburg: RGPU im. A. I. Gercena Publ. — 114 s. — (In Russian).
4. Bogdanova, O. V. (2008). Pisatel’ v maske. Kritik Vyacheslav Kuricyn v roli pisatelya Andreya Turgeneva [A writer in a mask. The critic Vyacheslav Kuritsyn as the writer Andrey Turgenev]. — St. Petersburg: Fak. filologii i iskusstv SPbGU Publ. — 161 s. — (In Russian).
5. Bogdanova, O. V. (2004). Postmodernizm v kontekste sovremennoj literatury (60–90-e gody ХIХ veka — nachalo ХХI veka) [Postmodernism in the context of modern literature (60–90-ies of the twentieth century — the beginning of the XXI century)]. — St. Petersburg: Filologicheskij f-t SPbGU Publ. — 716 s. — (In Russian)
6. Bogdanova, O. V. (2019). Sovremennyj literaturnyj process. Pretekst, podtekst, intertekst [Modern literary process. Pretext, subtext, intertext]. — St. Petersburg: RGPU im. A. I. Gercena Publ. — 471 s. — (In Russian).
7. Bogdanova, O. V., Cvetova, N. S. (2023). Epoh skreshchen’e... Russkaya proza 1960-h — 2020-h godov [Crossing of Epochs... Russian prose of the 1960s — 2020s]. — St. Petersburg: Aleteya Publ. — 374 s. — (In Russian).
8. Bulgakov, M. A. (1995). Sobranie sochinenij: v 10 t. [Collected works: in 10 vols.] / V. Petelin, sost., predisl, podgot. teksta. — Moscow: Golos Publ. — (In Russian).
9. Dovlatov, S. D. (2000). Sobranie sochinenij: v 4 t. [Collected works: in 4 vols.] / sost. i podgot. A. Yu. Ar’ev. — St. Petersburg: Azbuka Publ. — (In Russian).
10. Kuraev, M. N. (2009). Izbrannye proizvedeniya: v 2 t. [Selected works: in 2 vols.]. — St.-Petersburg: Russko-Baltijskij informacionnyj centr Publ. — (In Russian).
11. Kuricyn, V. (2001). Matador na Lune [Matador on the Moon]. — St. Petersburg: Neva Publ.; Moscow: Olma-Press Publ. — 382 s. — (In Russian).
12. Medicinskie aspekty blokady [Medical aspects of the blockade]. — URL: http://aliusha. livejournal.com/60343.html (accessed: 25.12.2023) — (In Russian).
13. Preodolevshie socrealizm. Avangard 1970–1980-h v bor’be s socialisticheskim realizmom [Those who overcame social realism. The avant-garde of the 1970s and 1980s in the struggle against socialist realism] (2023). — St. Petersburg: Aleteya Publ. — 332 s. — (In Russian)
14. Sorokin, V. (2002). Sobranie sochinenij: v 3 t. [Collected works: in 3 vols.]. — Moscow: Ad Marginem Publ. — (In Russian).
15. Turgenev, A. (2007). Spat’ i verit’: Blokadnyj roman [Sleep and believe: A Blockade novel]. — Moscow: Eksmo Publ. — 265 s. — (In Russian).

This study was supported by grant No. 23–18–01007 from the Russian Science Foundation, https://rscf.ru/project/23–18–01007/; the Dostoevsky Russian Christian Humanitarian Academy