Chronotopical Aspect of E. Vodolazkin’s Texts: from “Laurus” to “Brisbaine”

Abstract

The article deals with the most important and universal parameters, forms of existence and coordination of objects and, accordingly, philosophical notions of time and space, whose unity creates a heterogeneous poetic element in a complex and multidimensional continuum of an artistic text, the element which M. Bakhtin defined as a chronotope. The material of the research is the texts of the modern Russian writer E. Vodolazkin, and, first of all, his novels “Laurus” and “Brisbane”, which have received the greatest popularity in Russia and in foreign countries. In the undertaken research chronotopes are analyzed taking into account author’s chronotopical system of imagery of the considered literary texts, which is manifested through the unique language (idiostyle) of the writer. The article proves the key role of chronotope in the organization of artistic structure of the texts, as well as in the realisation of the author’s concept. The correlation of cultural information and memory and the main chronotopical characteristics of Vodolazkin’s works are examined. There was made a fruitful hypothesis of hyperchronotope existence, i.e. chronotope of generic level, formed by a set of hypochronotopes of lower level. In the material under study the category of the “classical” hyperchronotope includes the chronotope of the city, which is analyzed in close connection with the hypochronotope of Brisbane – the city which became the city of dreams and possible happiness. The article pays special attention to the chronotope of eternity, which is inseparable from the important themes of time, timelessness, and place – locus (“here”, “everywhere” and “nowhere”), which determines the narrative pattern of Vodolazkin’s texts being regularly represented in his works. The results of the analysis allow us to believe that the author’s chronotopes gravitate towards myth-making, and the chronotopical images used in the works contribute to greater embodying of the Vodolazkin’s characters.