Information about the author:
Tatiana A. Ponomareva
Tatiana A. Ponomareva, DSc in Philology, Professor of the Department of Russian Literature of the 20th–21st Centuries, Moscow Pedagogical State University, Malaya Pirogovskaya St., 1, bld. 1, 119991 Moscow, Russia.
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6442-8645
Е-mail:
Abstract:
The article is devoted to the peculiarities of the embodiment of the war theme in V. Panova’s novella “Sputniki” (“The Travelling Companions”). The narrative is not related to military events and socio-political conflicts. Panova reveals the problem of heroism, which is understood as a manifestation of human character in the context of military everyday life. Heroes are tested by war. The motifs of loss and gain, love and parting form the plot of the novella. “Sputniki” feature a theme typical of literature in the 1930s and 1940s, which is revealed in the novella as a motif of “frontline brotherhood”, as indicated in the title. For the prose of that time, the technique of openly exposing the antagonist was characteristic, but Panova complicates her hero: the coward and egoist Suprugov honestly performs his duties as a doctor even under fire. The article examines the features of the genre, composition, methods of creating a psychological portrait.
Keywords: ring composition, multiple heroes, military everyday life, trial by war, motif of loss, frontline brotherhood, antihero.
