The author and the hero in the aesthetic reality of the novel «Model» by N. D. Akhsharumov

The paper is devoted to the investigation of plot and narration features of the novel «Model» («Naturshchitsa») of Nikolai Dmitrievich Akhsharumov. The novel was published in the «Otechestvennye zapiski» in 1866. Nikolai Dmitrievich Akhsharumov was a critic, writer and editor of some Russian magazines. Traditionally attributed to antinigilistic prose, the «Model» was practically not noticed in Russian literary criticism. The interpretation of the plot techniques used in the novel can be considered as a lacuna in the history of Russian fiction. At the same time, the text under study is a vivid example of exposure of the reception and open literary reflection: in the plot, not only the author and the hero collide, but also the hedonic and pragmatic aspects of creativity that are ethically connected with the idea of the author’s responsibility to his hero are considered. Of importance is the fact that the story of Akhsharumov appeared in one year with the «Crime and Punishment» by F. M. Dostoevsky - a polyphonic novel, in which the relations of the author and the hero are most problematized (M. M. Bakhtin). This work considers the criticism of Grigory Zakharovich Eliseev, who tried to discredit Dostoevsky’s novel by comparing it with Akhsharumov’s story. The way of reading offered by the critic is profoundly polemical and, of course, does not exhaust the interpretation potential of Akhsharumov’s story. In addition, the plot of the story, built on the situation of the duel between the author and the hero, largely anticipates the key conflict of the novel «The Precipice» by I. A. Goncharov. Being familiar with N. D. Akhsharumov (the author of the «Model» left the critical analysis of the masterpieces «Oblomov», considering it from an aesthetic standpoint and abandoning social determinism in the spirit of N. A. Dobrolyubov), I. A. Goncharov could also know his concept of «enslaved art». In any case, between the collisions of the novel «The Precipice» (Raisky-author and Raisky-hero, Raisky-author and Volokhov-hero, Raisky-author and Vera-model) and the story «Model», a typological relationship is seen. In conclusion, the historical and literary reputation of Akhsharumov as a writer-novelist is summed up. The tendentious perception of the story «Model» was due to the position of the writer, gravitating toward conservative circles, standing aside from literary battles and polemic. In other words, the writer’s name lacked the significance of the «symbolic capital» proper. Considering the work from the point of view of the plot and story organization, the researcher comes to the conclusion about the experimental nature of the story, which in part anticipates the major discoveries of Russian classics and the Russian modernist novel.

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