Information about the author:
Sergey A. Vasilyev
Sergey A. Vasilyev, DSc in Philology, Professor, Department of Philology, Institute of Humanity of the Moscow City University, 2nd Selskokhozyajstvenny Proezd, 4, bld. 3, 129226 Moscow, Russia.
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6985-5002
E-mail:
Abstract:
In the text of the short story “The Fate of a Man”, the word ‘fate’ does not appear anywhere except in the title. Nevertheless, this symbolic image emerges as central to the work; in this context — of fate, doom, destiny, providence — the protagonist and, following him, the reader try to comprehend the tragic events that have occurred because of wartime adversities, and not them alone. The central symbolic image of fate is also realized in the artistic space of the story with its epic content. Particularly important in this regard are the mentions of Lozovenki in Kharkiv region of the Ukrainian SSR, indicating that the protagonist was captured during the unsuccessful Red Army offensive on Kharkiv in the late spring — early summer of 1942, as well as the mentions of Dresden, near which Andrey Sokolov was held in a POW concentration camp, serving as a basis for artistic association with the Dresden Art Gallery and its most famous masterpiece — “The Sistine Madonna.”
Keywords: M.A. Sholokhov, “The Fate of a Man”, symbolic image, artistic space.
