Home and family in the novels 'The White Guard' by M.A. Bulgakov and 'The Suicide' by M.A. Aldanov: A look at the revolution from the 'inside' and the 'outside'

Y.V. Makarova

Penza State University, Penza, 440026 Russia

E-mail: makelvita@yandex.ru

Received June 30, 2020

Full text PDF

DOI: 10.26907/2541-7738.2020.5.62-71

For citation: Makarovа Y.V. Home and family in the novels “The White Guard” by M.A. Bulgakov and “The Suicide” by M.A. Aldanov: A look at the revolution from the “inside” and the “outside”. Uchenye Zapiski Kazanskogo Universiteta. Seriya Gumanitarnye Nauki, 2020, vol. 162, no. 5, pp. 62–71. doi: 10.26907/2541-7738.2020.5.62-71. (In Russian)

Abstract

The sociocultural content of the concept of family hearth under the conditions of the revolutionary events of 1917 described in the novels “The Suicide” (‘Samoubiistvo’) by M.A. Aldanov and “The White Guard” (‘Belaya gvardiya’) by M.A. Bulgakov was revealed.

The relevance of the study is determined by the fact that the concepts of home and family are the basic components of the sociocultural consciousness of any society.

The study was performed with the aim of identifying key motifs in the description of home, as well as similarities and differences in the linguistic representation of this concept when describing two periods in the history of Russia (during the pre-revolutionary and revolutionary times) from the position of the author as an eyewitness to the events and the author as an emigrant.

The following conclusions were made: in the descriptions of home of the pre-revolutionary Russia in the novels “The White Guard” by M.A. Bulgakov and “The Suicide” by M.A. Aldanov, the motifs of the well-being, stability, and continuity of generations are emphasized. In the episodes depicting the revolutionary events, the linguistic representation of home and family changes considerably: the motifs of doom, regret about the lost, surrealism, and tenuous imaginings become evident.

The results obtained are important for linguistic analysis of some passages of the text needed for the adequate perception of the novels “The White Guard” by M.A. Bulgakov and “The Suicide” by M.A. Aldanov.

Keywords: motif, home, family, hearth, revolution

References

  1. Zelenin A. Yazyk russkoi emigrantskoi pressy (1919–1939) [The Language of Russian Émigré Press (1919–1939)]. St. Petersburg, Zlatoust, 2007. 380 p. (In Russian)
  2.  Korneichuk S.P., Sknar G.D. Conceptualization of the “Everyday life aesthetics” in the literary works by I.S. Turgenev and L.N. Tolstoy. In: Dinamika yazykovykh i kul’turnykh protsessov v sovremennoi Rossii [Dynamics of Linguistic and Cultural Processes in Modern Russia]. Issue 6: Proceedings of the VI Congress of the Russian Association of Teachers of Russian Language and Literature (Ufa, Oct. 11–14, 2018). St. Petersburg, ROPRYaL, 2018, pp. 325–330. (In Russian)
  3. Radomskaya T.I. Dom i Otechestvo v russkoi klassicheskoi literature pervoi treti XIX veka: opyt dukhovnogo, semeinogo, gosudarstvennogo ustroeniya [Home and Homeland in the Russian Classical Literature of the First Third of the 19th Century: Religious, Family, and State Organization]. Moscow, Sovpadenie, 2006. 237 p. (In Russian)
  4. Belozerskaya-Bulgakova L.E. Vospominaniya [Memoirs]. Moscow, Khudozh. Lit., 1989. 223 p. (In Russian)

 

The content is available under the license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.