Diary in the Plot and Narrative Organization of Boris Poplavsky's Novel Home from Heaven

The study aims to identify the semantics and the role of diary fragments in the narrative and plot organization of Boris Poplavsky's novel Home from Heaven (1935). The novel is considered as an ego-text, as the main character's narration. Features of the diary form allow posing the problem of the causes and functions of using the diary discourse by the author of the novel. Based on the theoretical positions in the works by M.Yu. Mikheev and S.V. Savinkov, the diary features are determined. The fragments of diary texts that are included in the text of the novel as quotations ("texts in the text") in the main character's narration are revealed. The diaries of the minor characters (of one of the character's women and of the character's friend) are included only as quotations and are important for the interpretation of some situations in the main character's life. Fragments of the narrating character's diaries do not dominate in the novel's narrative, but the article shows that they are a means of expressing the confessional discourse within the subjective narration of the events of the character's own life, as well as a means of self-determination in the earthly reality (at "home") when appealing to the metaphysical reality in the diary. The collision of the plot is the search for one's place in the being: the departure from metaphysics (the Divine) into sensory existence (relationships with women of two types: immersion in passion and acceptance of ordinary sensuality). The main function of the diary fragments is to designate the strengthening of the goal of becoming a writer, an interpreter of the being and the character's own existence. For Oleg, his writing the diary also performs a literary and creative function, the function of auto-dialogue, self-knowledge and self-identification. The article traces parallels between the aesthetic position of the author (Poplavsky), expressed in his critical articles and diaries, and the position of his character. The diary fragments fix the plot of the coming to creativity as a temporary replacement for the metaphysical reality on the way to the earthly reality. In the events of the novel, there are three plot situations, three positions of the character in reality. The event, due to which Oleg addresses the diaries in the first part of the novel, a trip to the sea, is a change in lifestyle. Plunging into relationships with women, Oleg emerges from texts and culture and even quits writing his diaries. The confessional discourse is transferred to the main character's stream of consciousness, to internal monologues, to Oleg's prayers to God and dialogues with women. In the final part, Oleg accepts the fate of the writer and the position of the interworld (existence in the earthly and metaphysical realities) that merge in his works. It is concluded that the entire text of the novel belongs to the character, who in the end decides to return to writing. The return of the main character to the "heaven of friends" is the entering into the space of culture and social history; "friends" are unknown recipients of his works, representatives of future generations. This expresses the belief of Poplavsky, a "young emigrant" writer, in literature as a way to build a new "home" after the destruction of culture by wars and revolutions (and which will be devastated by the coming world war).

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