The novel «Kamchadalka» by I. T. Kalashnikov and Siberian Baroque

The problem of the artistic integrity of I. T. Kalashnikov’s Kamchadalka is the lack of unity in the ideological and mythico-poetical aspects of the novel. I. T. Kalashnikov was under the influence of the «Irkutsk Baroque». In «Kamchadalka» the space and the person's position in it become extremely marginal. The person's position in the world is problematized, which is one of the conditions for the activation in the novel of the Baroque outlook, as well as for the use of elements of the Baroque poetics in their modifications. The novel asserts the hierarchy of Christianity and enlightenment in the relation of the Russian culture to the local peoples, but as this takes place there arises their Baroque mutual reflection. In the aspect of the Baroque poetics the article analyzes the plot structure, ideological constants, artistic anthropology, the system of correspondences and vertical ties of motifs and images, the composition of «Kamchadalka». The author used the Baroque archetypes: the prodigal son, Job, Don Juan, the repentant robber; the Baroque aspect of theatricality of the chronotope and roles of characters; two strategies of sense generating: imperative and relativity; the strategy of horizontal organization and «vertical» adjustment of characters before the common ancestral destiny that leads to the parallelism of images. Sufferings are neutralized by the life (Vanitas), which subordinates all.

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