Artistic Interpretation of the Concept of WINE DRINKING in a Series of Detective Novels by Boris Akunin “The Adventures of Erast Fandorin”

Abstract

The features of the concept representation of wine drinking in the artistic version of Boris Akunin are considered on the example of a series of detective stories “The Adventures of Erast Fandorin”. The work is a continuation of the author’s research in the field of artistic interpretation of Bacchic discourse by various writers. The connection between the creation of a bacchic artistic image and the type of culture (soteriological and eudaimonic) is noted. Among the artistic features of Akunin’s work is a description of the crimes that were committed with “grace and taste”. The author of the article claims that this feature affects the choice of means of creating a bacchic picture of the world in the work. It is noted that the introduction of elements of the wine drinking situation is used by Akunin as a means of reconstructing the background “picture” that performs a descriptive function, and as a plot-modeling component. In the Akunin model of a city street of the XIX century, the “classical” composition of the characters includes not only “a janitor”, “a tradeswoman”, “a cabman”, etc., but also a “drunken cornball”. A “character model” is described, including a set of his characteristics, which can be called a “card index” of his weaknesses and habits. Among the elements of this “card index” the presence of a tendency to wine drinking, which is a character's vulnerability, is noted. The character traits include such features as appearance (face, eyes, weight), olfactory characteristics (smell as a marker of social status or national identity), speech (voice, its timbre, register and manners), wine variety as a business card of the hero, his weaknesses and habits.

Keywords

• b. akunin
• mass literature
• conceptualization
• categorization
• bacchic discourse
• drinking culture
• national character
• mentality
• russian language picture of the world