Genre originality of play ''Is Love a Mirage?'' by Vyacheslav Ivanov

Vyacheslav Ivanov defined the genre of the play ''Is Love a Mirage?'' either asa tragicomedy or as an operetta-melodrama. This points, first of all, at the complex nature of this literary work. But, in general, it ispossible to designate two poles of it: one is tragic, the other is comic. In the text of the play formal features of operetta are subordinatedto the original author's plan. Firstly, the characters are complicated due to the introduction of socially-philosophical implied sense. Forinstance, the problem of the "superfluous" person and the idea of eternal wandering add not an operetta overtone to the atmosphere ofthe play. Secondly, the author preserves the external love conflict between a representative of wealthy aristocracy and a star of artisticbohemia, which is traditional for a plot of such a genre. But the real plot forming conflict does not have an external but internalcharacter and is built due to the laws of ''new drama'' of the twentieth century. Thirdly, the text realizes motives with more likely tragic,than operetta property. For example, the motive of integrity / not-integrity is obviously out of the operetta paradigm. The melodramaticnature of the play by Vyacheslav Ivanov attracts attention by its ambivalence and ''multilayeredness'', ''growing'' of the tragic through themelodramatic canvas. The play raises the problem of imaginary and authentic reality, which was interesting for Vyacheslav Ivanov longbefore the appearance of ''Is Love a Mirage?'' But the framework of the melodrama genre obviously limits the range of problems of theplay. The characters, conflict typology and even the intrigue of the play go beyond the melodrama frames and take other genre forms.The main characters of Ivanov's melodrama evolve against the genre often producing ambivalent attitudes of the readers, the conflictbecoming tragic. So, ''Is Love a Mirage?'' could only partly be accepted as an operetta or a melodrama. Its plot and composition have anumber of features of a tragicomedy. But the play is believed to have an essential feature: none of the main characters, who should come''per aspera ad astra'' due to the logic of a tragicomedy, settles their internal conflicts at the end of the play. The author believes that apersonality of the twentieth century cannot find the wholeness even in the death as today's deliberate choice of leaving life isinaccessible: a personality has neither physical strength nor soul powers enough for it. This is the root of the original tragic element ofthe modern epoch of destruction and transformations. That is why, there is no overcoming of the tragic situation in the play, it is realisedthrough the comic element. The main character, not ''having reached'' the status of the tragic hero, becomes the tragicomic one. Thesituation, the main character of ''Is Love a Mirage?'' acts in, is put in the context of the events that are tragic by their nature and thereforeit reveals truly catastrophic aspects of existence.

Keywords

Authors

References