Information about the author:

This study was carried out at IWL RAS with a grant from the Russian Science Foundation (project No. 22-18-00051), https://rscf.ru/project/22-18-00051/

Abstract:

The article examines the motif of traveling around the house, traveling around the room in B.K. Zaitsev’s tetralogy “Gleb’s Travels” (1934–1952). The deep connection of this motif with the estate theme is noted. The motif of the path contains many intersecting realizations and is impossible without the idea of different places — the place that is left (often an estate), and those visited on the journey. The author of the article analyzes one of the key episodes in the entire tetralogy of Gleb and Sonya’s journey around the room, shows its meaning and functions in the tetralogy. The connection of this episode with the literary tradition and its creative development by the writer are noted. It is proved that Gleb undergoes a kind of initiation rite on this conditional journey. The game of Gleb, who is transitioning to adulthood, correlates with one of the games of his childhood and acquires many hidden meanings. The significance of this symbolic action in the fate of Gleb is examined, it is stated that it was able to take place thanks to life in the estate, the presence of the estate history of the family, previously undertaken trips to the house and rooms, as well as Gleb’s rich imagination. Going on a journey around the room, Gleb understands that his human and literary fate is not in the hands of the populist editor who rejected his article, but in the hands of God. The article draws an interesting parallel between Gleb’s symbolic journey and other journeys: from the journey of the hero of the book “A Journey Through My Room” by Xavier de Maistre to the “as if a journey” of Mikhail Alpatov, the hero of the novel “Kashcheev’s Chain” by M.M. Prishvin, the similarity of the episodes in the indicated works.