The novella «Greta and Tank» by M. Aldanov: Poetics of the Novella and Artistic Self-reflection

The paper considers the formally substantial structure of the novella «Greta and Tank»: it traces the interaction of the novelistic genre laws (the role of an incident, the plot dynamics, the sudden outcome) and of the artistic self-reflection understood as the presence in the text of reflections about the principles of creating a text. Study is made of the system of characters, organization of subjects, correlation of the consciousness of the narrator and that of the hero-essayist. Analysis is made of the rough copy of the story from Bakhmeteff Archive (USA), revealing the function of marginalia that create an ironic mode of narration. As a result, a conclusion is made that the novella «Greta and Tank» is a unique experience among Aldanov’s short stories: the reevaluation of the author’s strategy became his key intention.

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