What You Can Get Used to and What You Cannot: Towards the Question of Platonov’s Traditionalism

Abstract

The article examines the use of a Russian verb “privyknut’ (get used to)” in the fiction of Andrey Platonov. The use of this verb in his works is full of special connotations typical for his prose that reveal his understanding of the “temporal” being of a human life. This perspective is opposed to the “plan-based thinking” of utopianism which played an important role in Platonov’s earlier period and in socialism generally. However, as he grew older, with many tragedies including his son’s early death and the World War II, he started to realize that “getting used to” is one of the main moments in the life of human existence, whatever it concerns — grief and death or happiness and love. It is possible to call this change of Platonov’s thought a “traditionalist deepening” should we consider that traditionalism or conservatism entails the importance of customs and habits that were developed in the society over time and not by the power of ideas and theories. In general, we can conclude that it is the antinomy between the “plan-based thinking” and the “getting used to,” ideals and ordinary life that characterizes Platonov’s fiction.

Keywords

• andrey platonov
• “getting used to
• ” temporal essence of a human life
• war prose
• traditionalism.