Metatext structure and its expression methods in Vladimir Maksimov's Nomad to the End (1994)

The aim of the article is to analyze the metatext structure and to reveal the ways of its expression on the material of the novel Nomad to the End by Vladimir Maksimov. Cultural-historical, mythopoetic methods and method of intertextual analysis are used. In the course of the study, the concept of metatext closely related to the autobiographical principle is considered; the genre of the novel Nomad to the End with the involvement of the points of view of researchers who previously addressed it is analyzed; the construction of the work is characterized as a view from the present to the past, as a reflection on past events, which is reflected in the structure of the novel. The metatext structure of the novel is reflected through the reflective nature of the narrative, through the choice of the novel in the novel form, inset texts. The narrator describes and analyzes his past and history of Russia, writes, comments and simultaneously presents his novel about his father in the changing epoch of the revolution and civil war to the reader; he often talks about the essence of creativity and comes to a conclusion that he did not succeed as a writer. The metatext structure of Nomad to the End is represented in many ways. The character is a writer and describes the creation of his novel. There is an emphasis of the author on his presence in the text. Reflection over his work manifests itself as self-criticism. The hero considers himself an unsuccessful writer; as a result, the novel (material) absorbs him as a person, the ending of the novel predetermines the real end (suicide) of the writer. Inset texts perform different functions in the novel. In addition to the author's communication with the reader, influences on his perception and interpretation of the text, inset texts as metatext techniques actualize the intertextual dialogue between the novel as a work of the camp prose with the previous tradition of penal literature ("Sakhalin Island" by Anton Chekhov) and camp prose (the names of Var-lam Shalamov and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn are introduced) (the meaning creation function), the authenticity of a historical fact (a documentary-historical function that simultaneously exercises the function of influencing the reader), a commentary on the whole text, the way of completion of the novel (structure, the composition function). The author's inner-text reflection is represented through the temporary layers of the novel: the fate and life of the protagonist-narrator Mikhail Barmin in the present (emigration, the 1960s); life in the past (memories of the hero about adolescence and youth, the 1930s-1960s); the novel of the main character about his father embodying the idea of the fate of an individual in history (c. the 1910s-1960s). Thus, the novel is constructed as a view from the present to the past, as a reflection on past events. The reflexive character of the narrative leads to the choice of the form of writing Nomad to the End: the novel introduces a novel in the novel and a novel about the novel (creativity and writer's fate) of Vladimir Maksimov's character.

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