Сибирский федеральный университет

Тип публикации: статья из журнала

Год издания: 2020

Идентификатор DOI: 10.17223/19986645/68/12

Ключевые слова: motif of temptation, image of forbidden fruit, spiritual test, biblical plot, temptation of creativity, choice of path

Аннотация: The article presents the results of the analysis of the temptation motif in Leonid Leonov's novel The Thief, which, despite the high degree of knowledge of the writer's individual texts and their motif structure, remains little-studied. The relevance of the work is due to the plot-forming function of this motif and its role in interpreting the ideological content of the novel, which was noted by the largest researchers of Leonov (A.A. Dyrdin, L.P. Yakimova, T.M. Vakhitova). The methodological basis of the study was works on the poetics of motif (V.Ya. Propp, I. E. Silantyev), religious and philosophical research (S. Kierkegaard, G. Egorov, F.N. Kozyrev). The method of structural-typological motivational analysis revealed the key options for the motif of temptation. In The Thief it is revealed in the sense of testing the heroes' spirit, moral fortitude, faith and is often correlated by the writer with biblical stories about seduction (Adam and Eve in the Eden, Christ in the desert). Through the test of the heroes by love and revolution (Mitka Vekshin - V'yuga - Baluyev), pride (Vekshin - Pchkhov, Vekshin V'yuga), power (Vekshin - Sanka Bicycle), knowledge (Vekshin - V'yuga - Tanya Vekshina), Leonov shows their ability to resist temptation, independent choice of path, degree of moral decline. These allomotifs are of great artistic value primarily for interpreting the image of the protagonist, Mitka Vekshin, expressing the spirit and thinking of the crisis time. Another significant allomotif - temptation with creativity, to which several characters (Manyukin, Chikilev, Firsov) are subjected - is a variation of temptation with pride, since each of these heroes seems to have a unique glory of a genius, worthy of perpetuation. Unlike other allomotifs, Leonov almost always shows the temptation of creativity in a playful, ironic manner. Most of the heroes of The Thief are subjected to various types of temptation, but since none of them is able to pass this spiritual test completely, the mode of temptation is replaced by the mode of fall (moral (V'yuga, Mitka) and physical (Tanya Vekshina)) and eternal despair; Kierkegaard, in his Fear and Trembling, very subtly called their combination "demonic despair". Obviously, Leonov rethought the situations of temptation, which allusively go back to the texts of the Holy Scripture; and their assessment does not always correspond to the orthodox biblical one, entering into a worldview conflict with it. The development of the image of the protagonist, who has not passed the spiritual test and, at the same time, is attractive to the narrator by his rebellion against the system (the prodigal son Vekshin is the only one to violate the principle of "not looking back"), indicates the ambiguity of Leonov's intention, which changed during the repeated editing of the novel.

Журнал: VESTNIK TOMSKOGO GOSUDARSTVENNOGO UNIVERSITETA FILOLOGIYA-TOMSK STATE UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF PHILOLOGY

Выпуск журнала: Vol. 68

Номера страниц: 258-266

ISSN журнала: 19986645

Место издания: TOMSK

Издатель: TOMSK STATE UNIV

• Zadorina Alena O. (Siberian Fed Univ, Krasnoyarsk, Russia)

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