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Abstract:

The focus of the article is on A. Platonov’s story “The Origin of the Master,” which is the first of seven chapters of the novel “Chevengur.” The data from classical languages, such as Ancient Greek and Latin, allows Platonov to playfully bring together three groups of professions and crafts that differ in the nature of the materials used: wood, metal, and stone (brick). These are the professions of a carpenter (joiner, wheelwright, woodcarver, etc.), a blacksmith (metalworker, techni- cian, machinist, etc.), and a builder. It shows how this triad of professional activities is related to literary skill. Platonov’s selected professions are structured in the form of a syncretic oppositional concept, where their symbiotic unity is always revealed through the differences in their constituent elements. The formation of such concepts is based on Plato’s dialogues “The Republic,” “The Laws,” and “The Symposium,” as well as Hegel’s law of the unity and struggle of opposites. Attention is also drawn to a number of religious, mythological, and literary sources, the reception of which contributes to the formation and development of the novel’s theme. The significance of the selected conceptual field is analyzed, and its systemic relationships with other elements of Platonov’s conceptual system are traced, with a particular focus on cos- mology, cosmogony, and eschatology in both general and specific contexts, including the cycle of human life. A new interpretation of the title of the story “The Origin of the Master” is proposed, taking into account the close connection between the concepts of technology, mastery, art, ancient ideas about matter, and the creationist myth.