Genre specifics of I.S. Turgenev's story 'Ghosts'

K.V. Polyakova*, M.V. Kurylyova**

Ulyanovsk State Pedagogical University, Ulyanovsk, 432071 Russia

E-mail: *Ksenija_Lasareva@mail.ru, **kurylyova.m.v@mail.ru

Received September 13, 2016

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Abstract

This paper is devoted to the analysis of specifics of the author's genre definition of “fantasia” in I.S. Turgenev's story “Ghosts” in the context of traditions of the European romantic literature. The functions of the genre construct “fantasia” in romanticist literature as a whole and in I.S. Turgenev's work in particular have been defined. The importance to define “fantasia” in the artistic consciousness of the Russian writer has been considered. The correlation of the subtitle with different levels of the artistic structure of the text has been established.

Firstly, the typological and specific features of “fantasia” as an additional characteristic of author's genre in the works of such romanticist writers as W.H. Wackenroder, E.T.A Hoffmann, and A. Bertrand have been investigated. It has been proved that “fantasia”, both in the European and Russian tradition, is oriented toward graphic or/and musical artifacts of the world culture, contain reminiscences, hidden references to the works of art from other eras and nations, thereby mobilizing the cultural memory of the reader. Therefore, philosophical ideas of the meaning of life, purpose of history, learning the universal laws of life, comprehension of the beauty become the internal subject of “fantasia”. The main subject of “fantasia” is the idea of a balance between life and art: art in life and life in art.

The results of the study have led to the conclusion that I.S. Turgenev's genre definition of “fantasia” helped the Russian realist writer to focus his contemporary reader on a deeper perception of the literary work, which failed to comply with the esthetic regulations of the era and did not correspond to the common understanding of I.S. Turgenev's method and style, but at the same time expressed ideas and experiences which were significant for the author. The quasi-genre “fantasia” is used by I.S. Turgenev for specifying the subjective nature of reflection of the reality, emphasizing the conditional nature of images and situations that are rather generated by the power of imagination of the story teller than existing as the objective reality, the bright lyrical element in the artistic fabric of the epic narration.

I.S. Turgenev's story initiated chronologically a series of Russian prosaic “fantasies”. From the point of its structure, poetics, and style, it was the brightest and perfect one. Many genre and poetic features of this “fantasy” became relevant for Russian fiction and popular literature of the last third of the 19th – early 20 century, as well as for postmodernist literatures of the late 20th century.

Keywords: I.S. Turgenev, genre subtitle, title poetics, genre, style, problem of art in art, “musical” element in literature, fantasia, phantasy, Russian prose, romanticism, fiction

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For citation: Polyakova K.V., Kurylyova M.V. Genre specifics of I.S. Turgenev's story “Ghosts”. Uchenye Zapiski Kazanskogo Universiteta. Seriya Gumanitarnye Nauki, 2017, vol. 159, no. 1, pp. 107–120. (In Russian)


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