Cyclic forms as a way of presenting existential issues in A. M. Remizov's story "Sisters of the Cross"

Abstract

The article analyzes the forms of cyclization in the story "The Sisters of the Cross" by A.M. Remizov and their role in the realization of the existential problematic of the work. The originality of Remizov's creative consciousness and artistic method, his interest in the ontological foundations of personality are emphasized by a special narrative structure, which is characterized by the strengthening of the corresponding motional structures. The religious and mythopoetic understanding of reality, inextricably linked with the artistic method, allows us to talk about the cycle as a broad category, according to the concept of I. Pospisil, which implies, along with motives, the unification of various forms of lexical and semantic repetitions in order to actualize important issues of being for the writer. The author of this article believes that the logic of the writer's strategy and its embodiment in the composition of the work are unthinkable without understanding the elements of the cycle as contextually updated units of content that need active interpretation by the reader, which is necessary for a holistic perception of the work. This understanding of the cycle is complicated by the grotesque characterization of the motifs and their correlation with both the metatext of Remizov's early work (the concept of the "artistic ensemble" by E. Tyryshkina) and the metatext of the Russian novel, the evolution of the plot structure of which is associated with the complication of the existential aspect. Based on the tasks set, the article uses structural-descriptive and descriptive-functional methods to analyze the system of cyclic forms of the writer and their functions. Taking into account the large-scale content coverage of the existential issues in A. M. Remizov's novella "The Sisters of the Cross", when considering the forms of cyclization in the work, it is necessary to take into account not only the hierarchical levels of the text (lexico-semantic repetitions and motivic structures as part of the composition of the story itself and from the point of view of the metatext of Remizov's work) and the different functions of these forms, but also common features cyclical trends in the narrative. Thus, one of the aspects of Remizov's poetics receives a proper theoretical understanding. The analysis of the story shows that a broad understanding of the cycle allows us to group the heterogeneous elements of the composition in terms of their general content orientation, which in further research may be useful in a holistic analysis of Remizov's work, his writing strategy, as well as the author's place among other masters of ornamental prose in Russian literature.