Anti-Soviet" Valery Tarsis: the behaviour model of the nonconformist writer as a realisation of identity

The author analyses the behaviour model of the nonconformist writer Valery Tarsis. It allows to reveal the specifics of the individual identity of the writer. The purpose of this article is to determine the mechanisms of its formation, to detect the behavioural model used as a sample and determining the type of the nonconformist writer. The choice of the object of the study is determined by the discrepancy between the identity of the writer, performed in social practice, and his genuine identity, reconstructed by the analysis of his behavioural patterns. According to the author of the article, the basic mechanism of Tarsis' self-identification was the reproduction of the heroic model of the "fighter against totalitarianism". As a sample, the behaviour model of Boris Pasternak was used, but in an edited version. Tarsis did not hide his anti-Soviet views, consciously provoked government repression. He published two stories in the West, The Legend of a Blue Fly and Ward 7, under his own name. His name sounded in samizdat circles and abroad. The reference group was determined - readers of samiz-dat, and tamizdat. International popularity protected Tarsis from the authorities that decided to send the writer out of the country in 1965. However, this behaviour pattern concealed a Soviet mentality under anti-Soviet actions. Journalistic speeches of the writer broadcast the Soviet model of social relations: the authoritative aspiration of the writer to direct, show a role model, train younger companions with his own example not only in professional skills, but also in a living position. Interviews and articles of Tarsis in the Soviet Union and in exile remain rhetorical techniques of the Soviet discourse. The obvious discrepancy between the original and declared identities determined the creative destiny of the writer: positioning himself as an independent artist overthrowing the political dictatorship of the state he reproduced Soviet stereotypes in his civil and literary behaviour, and did not manage to realise himself fully as a writer.

Keywords

Authors

References