The chronotopic image of the border in the novel 'Dragonfly Enlarged to the Size of a Dog' by O.A. Slavnikova

G.A. Frolova

Kazan Federal University, Kazan, 420008 Russia

E-mail: Galina-Frolova-KFU@yandex.ru

Received September 19, 2016

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Abstract

The paper reveals the specifics of functioning of the chronotopic image of the border in the novel “Dragonfly Enlarged to the Size of a Dog” by O.A. Slavnikova. The relevance of the study is determined by the fact that Olga Slavnikova is one of the key figures in the contemporary literary process. Her work has been the focus of such critics and literary scholars as E. Ermolin, S. Belyakov, V. Lipnevich, E. Elagina, and A. Nemzer. Besides, it was the publication of the novel “Dragonfly Enlarged to the Size of a Dog” struck in the Booker shortlist in 1997 that brought the writer to success. Nevertheless, this work continues to be under-researched in the aspect of the space-time organization, which defines the novelty of our study. The study has been performed in order to establish the basic meanings of the image of the border in the novel “Dragonfly Enlarged to the Size of a Dog” by O.A. Slavnikova. The paper presents a number of examples illustrating the functioning of the category of border, chronotope threshold, archetype journey, as well as their connection. On the basis of the research, the following conclusions have been made. The image of the border in the novel “Dragonfly Enlarged to the Size of a Dog” by O.A. Slavnikova is semantically polysemous. The author gives it not only the spatial meaning, but also the emotionally valuable and existential ones, because any overcoming of the borders for O.A. Slavnikova's characters is associated with psychological discomfort and entails their emotional transformation. Furthermore, one of the characters (Katerina Ivanovna) aims to destroy or overcome the internal and external borders, while the other one (Sofia Andreevna), on the contrary, wants to build and strengthen them. The image of the border is directly connected with the chronotope threshold in the novel. The situation of life crisis becomes the starting point in the organization of the plot of the novel, which allows to speak about the plot-compositional function of the chronotope threshold, the basic meanings of which are associated with the internal state of the characters, their indecisiveness before a new life and the necessity of finding their own space. The category of the border contributes to the actualization of the archetype of travel as a dangerous path associated with the intersection of some other space. These results are important for understanding the spatial and temporal organization of the novel “Dragonfly Enlarged to the Size of a Dog” in particular and the specifics of the artistic world of O.A. Slavnikova's prose as a whole.

Keywords: O.A. Slavnikova, “Dragonfly Enlarged to the Size of a Dog”, chronotope threshold, border, archetype of travel, artistic space

References

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For citation: Frolova G.A. The chronotopic image of the border in the novel “Dragonfly Enlarged to the Size of a Dog” by O.A. Slavnikova. Uchenye Zapiski Kazanskogo Universiteta. Seriya Gumanitarnye Nauki, 2017, vol. 159, no. 1, pp. 208–216. (In Russian)

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