Meta-plot and intertext in the poetics of Eugene Vodolazkin’s novel The Aviator

The Aviator, a novel by Eugene Vodolazkin, is imbued with plots, techniques, mythologems of a rich artistic heritage. This feature gives grounds for studying the work from the standpoint of a structural-semiotic approach. The novel’s literary subtext is also complemented by an extensive cinematic background: Hibernatus by Edouard Molinaro starring Louis de Funes (Italy, France, 1969), Sleeper by Woody Allen (USA, 1973), Encino Man by Les Mayfield (USA, 1992), The Aviator by Martin Charles Scorsese starring Leonardo DiCaprio (USA, 2004). The intricate chronotope of The Aviator gives the novel the ability to unite the metaplots of Russian and world literature. The means of stylistic and poetic design of the meta-plot are original intertextual maneuvers. A special place as the geopoetic emphasis in the context of the chronotope of the novel is occupied by toponyms “canonized” in the historical discourse of Russian literature: St. Petersburg, Solovki. Probably, because of the fantastic longevity of the central character, Vodolazkin’s The Aviator, written in the 21st century, concentrates meta-plots characteristic of the literary process and the two preceding centuries. Trickster and Faustian mega-plots in the modifications “war and penal servitude”, “superfluous and superman”, “misalliance” refer to the literary tradition of the 19th century. “Incest” and “flight into the profession” are meta-plots reflected mainly in the poetic space of the 20th century. “Lost home”, “lost child”, “happy love” are “serial” macro-plots of the latest fiction. The intrigue of Vodolazkin’s novel is supported by a number of plots and genre patterns of world literature. The reminiscence field of The Aviator is drawn to the works of Shakespeare, Pushkin, Wells, Andreev, Mayakovsky, Bulgakov, and others. The intertextual paradigm of the novel also includes a symbolic complex designed to solve diverse ideological and aesthetic problems. The key symbols of the work are the aviator, Themis, sausage, and the island. The novel contains genre signs of mystical, gothic, detective, fantastic, satirical, romantic, epistolary prose, elements of utopia and dystopia. The projection into eternity is carried out in the novel mainly by referring to Old Testament, evangelical and apocryphal motifs: the wandering Jew, Lazarus arisen from the dead, the parable of the prodigal son, the prophecy of the Second Coming, Resurrection, etc. Thus, the combinatorics of plots, symbols, “cult” texts “ in the conditional structural model of the meeting of epochs forms the complex architectonics of the novel and brings the major issues of The Aviator into the infinite space of culture. The historical, axiological, aesthetic anthropological memory of culture is embedded in the mythologems of meta-plots. With their help, Vodolazkin creates optimal conditions for a scrupulous study of a human in the categories of ethics, literature, science, and art. The author declares no conflicts of interests.

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