Cross-Cutting Images as Cyclo-Forming Foundations of the “Fandorin Corps”: Concept of a Ruler

Abstract

The image of the tsar is considered as a through cycle-forming one in the Fandorin corpus of Boris Akunin. The results of a comparative analysis of the images of three emperors, with the reign of which Fandorin’s activity chronologically coincides, is presented in the article. The author dwells on the comparison of the images of emperors with the images of tsars in the “Children’s Book for Boys” and the images of revolutionaries, future leaders of Soviet Russia, in the story “Where Should We Go?”. Particular attention is paid to the emphasized inconsistency: the rulers deduced in the texts are by no means regal, their appearance and manners are described in a repulsive manner, and humiliating comparisons are used. The question is raised about the opposition of such an interpretation of the image of the king to an alternative version: a significant absence of the king as a character or a description of a person who is only destined to become a king in the future. The novelty of the research is seen in the fact that the author singles out cyclo-forming motives and their disclosure in texts about Erast Fandorin, attracting not only samples of the detective genre, but also companion texts. The relevance of the study is due to a comprehensive analysis of the vast body of texts and the selection of cross-cutting archetypal images.

Keywords

• akunin
• cycle
• archetype
• cycle-forming motives
• the image of the king
• ruler archetype