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Abstract:

Alexander Kuprin’s short story “Staff-captain Rybnikov” (1906) and Leonid Andreyev’s story “Darkness” (1907) converge on the basis of the similarity of their chronotope and locality — a brothel, or “locus of sin”, which, in turn, becomes a “resonant space” (V.N. Toporov) and enlivens the “cultural memory”. The plot and characters of the two works are explored in the article at story-motivation level both from a literary perspective and in the context of the era. It is demonstrated that in the discursive field of the beginning of the century the “sexual question” has convergence not only with the revolutionary events but also with the Russo- Japanese war. The article discusses attempts to bring together all three discourses — revolutionary, military and sexual. It is proved that in the works of Kuprin and Andreyev the plot unites a terrorist, a harlot and an eavesdropper — tree metaheroes of the era of the first Russian revolution, harbingers of its imminent catastrophe (akin to Tsushima). The figure of the Russian writer is interpreted as an inversion of an eavesdropper who carefully peers into the terrible face of Russia and captures the features of decay. Peeping is elevated to the position of observation in the context of naturalism which colors Kuprin’s work, while in a metaphysical sense it is interpreted as a model of relations with the reality of Russian literature which tries to both reflect and comprehend the inevitable apocalypse. Keywords: Kuprin, Leonid Andreyev, Harlot, Eavesdropper, Terrorist, Metahero, Apocalypse, Revolution, Russo-Japanese War.