Information about the author:
Ksenya A. Sundukova
Ksenya A. Sundukova — PhD in Philology, Associate Professor of the Department of Russian and Foreign Literature and Public Relations, Samara National Research University named after Academician S.P. Korolev, Moskovskoe Highway 34, 443086 Samara, Russia.
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3254-5761
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Abstract:
The article is devoted to the similarities in the depiction of one dacha topos in two novels: “The Aviator” (2016) by E.G. Vodolazkin and “The Old Man” (1978) by Yu.V. Trifonov. In both works, Siverskaya is depicted as a place that stores many “signs of memory,” associating with the world of the heroes’ lost childhood. It’s a kind of paradise lost. The return to Siverskaya (symbolic or real) in the composition of both novels becomes a symbol of reunification with the experience of memory, including thanks to the commemorative strategies of the heroes. The similarity can also be traced at the level of artistic details: a description of the family comfort of a country house; railway station as an “entry” point into the dacha world, etc. Trifonov depicts mainly the winter Siverskaya, while in Vodolazkin the winter and summer modes of existence of the dacha village are pointedly contrasted. The analysis of the dacha topos in the work is carried out using the concept of lieux de mémoire, proposed by the French historian Pierre Nora to designate the phenomenon in which history as an objective cataloging of the past and memory as a personal, emotionally charged perception of the past converge.