Филологический класс (Feb 2018)
IRINA GLEBOVA'S STORY “POLYETHYLENE SACHET, THE SOUL OF THE POTATO BAG": SYNTHESIS OF GENRE TRADITIONS
Abstract
On the basis of the text miniature by Irina Glebova, the implementation of the “memory of the genre” in modern prose is considered. We rely on the ideas of modern researchers who develop the Bakhtin theory of the genre: the relationship between genre and discourse in the corresponding narrative strategies in the works of V. I. Tiupa; we also take into account the idea of “genre-relics” by S. Zenkin. Glebova marked the genre of her work as an “urban romance”. At the same time, the work combines the attributes of parable and keening. Glebova’s works are in the zone of mass consciousness, but they do not transmit the generally accepted and “basic” believes, but rather put the reader in a situation of moral choice. The discursive strategy of persuasion is combined in Glebova’s text with the dialogue of the author and the reader, which is most obvious in the change of personal pronouns “we”, “he”, “you” as the text unfolds. The genre “dialogue” is supplemented by a “dialogue” with the Russian classics existing in the minds of everybody. The household object (a plastic bag) acquires the features of the image-archetype. The theme of the ruinization of the culture of the Soviet past and the semiotics of garbage and all kinds of cultural waste are often present in contemporary Russian art. In modern culture, which makes garbage a semiotic object, an empty plastic bag symbolizes both negative (unnecessary, empty) and positive (levity, freedom, flight) meanings. However, a number of works of recent years reject the tactics of escapism. The emptiness ceases to seem the ideal of freedom and beauty, being dangerously associated with devastation. The text by I. Glebova, with apparent simplicity and the use of spoken language, as well as the features of “women's prose”, continues the traditions of “Petersburg poetics”.
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