The Connection Between the Images of a Child- Knight in the Triad of "Autobiographical" Stories by Andrei Bely

The connection between the images of a child-knight in the triad of Andrei Bely's "autobiographical" stories (Kotik Letaev, The Baptized Chinaman, Notes of an Eccentric) is analyzed in this article through cultural-historical, comparative and mythopoetic methods. Bely's stories are organized by a row of crucial images, which have the potential to evolve and substitute one another in the chronotope of the plain and cyclic time. One of these symbolic pairs includes a knight and a child. Bely considers a child as a part of this symbolic chain but also as a link-mediator between the spaces of different virtual realities (a myth, a fairytale and heroic epos). Repeated images merge the "autobiographical" stories, which form a symbolic triad. It is important that the structure of Bely's literary works and the scheme of his own destiny comply with the triadic concept. The road of initiation begins in mythological pre-existence (Kotik Letaev). Afterwards the child oversteps the border between sub-consciousness and reality discovering the new universe (The Baptized Chinaman). Notes of an Eccentric is the culmination of this course. The child agrees to be crowned by consciousness and therefore sacrifices his link with the myth and makes his first steps on the knight road. Bely postulates that knighthood is the preserving of an inner child within the soul in spite of numerous "barbaric" invasions. The link between a knight and a child is shown through the sum of motives traditional for knight novels, such as love, a weapon, a dream and a new word. Notes of an Eccentric contains the images of snakes and dragons from Kotik Letaev and from the fairytale reality of The Baptized Chinaman. The sacrifice motif is also common for the stories. A hero awaits purification and resurrection after his symbolic death through the power of love, which is true for a knight novel and for a childhood chronotope. The connection between a knight and a child emphasizes through another traditional motif - a dream. A dream in Notes of an Eccentric is a road of initiation for a self-conscious soul. There is a tradition of sword sanctification in knight culture. This ritual in Bely's stories is conducted by creation of new symbols, vibrant and dynamic words. The hero searches for special language free from stylization and literary genre demands. For these purposes Bely returns words their inner forms. The same method is used by Kotik Letaev in the eponymous story. In the triad of stories, the "myth of a life course" is comprehended through evolution of the motives - from a biographical child, which represents mythological consciousness and a sentient soul, to a knight (a hero in search of theosis) and in the end to the symbolic child (a self-conscious soul).

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