Counterfactual narratives and the problem of the receptive event in the short story “Ruchka, nozhka, ogurechik…” by Yu. Dombrovsky

Narrative includes not only events that occur within a storyworld but also those that only could have occurred. These “possible” events are incorporated into the narrative progression and shape the reader’s experience. Such events, which are subsequently contradicted or conflict with the plot’s trajectory, are defined by researcher Hilary Dannenberg as counterfactual. This article examines counterfactual narratives through an analysis of Yuri Dombrovsky’s short story “Ruchka, nozhka, ogurechik…” (“Little arm, leg, cucumber…”; 1977). These narratives problematize the sphere of actual events by blurring the distinction between the historical and the potential. Consequently, the “possible” at the plot level is experienced by readers as “actually happened.” They invite the reader to complete a narrative that appears inherently incomplete. At the representational level, the effect of realism is enhanced by a metonymic writing style and an appeal to the reader’s sensory experience. In the story, the “possible” takes priority over “what actually happened,” preventing the reader from fully determining the protagonist’s fate. Simultaneously, this “potentiality” displaces actual events, illustrating a loss of control over one’s life, fears, and imagination. This effect is achieved through affective amplification created by expanding counterfactual lines. Paradoxically, these counterfactual events do not appear counterfactive to the reader. Instead, the narrative is recognized as prophetically foretelling the author’s actual death.

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