TIPOLOGIA PERSONAJELOR ROMANULUI LUDMILEI ULIȚKAIA IMAGO
Types of Characters in Lyudmila Ulitskaya’s Novel The Big Green Tent

Summary/Abstract: The following article is an analysis of the characters in Lyudmila Ulitkaia’s novel The Big Green Tent. The writer offers a broad presentation of Russian society that spans a period of about a century, highlighting various types of people, their fate and the imprint that political and social changes had on the heroes’ personality. Using the notion of imago understood as the final stage in insects’ evolution, the writer draws a parallel to the life of the individual, suggesting that moral and spiritual evolution should occupy a leading place. The study focuses on revealing the characters’ personalities using the Jungian theory of human archetypes. It also concentrates on the situations, many of them conflicting, which polish the heroes' perception of reality, the interpersonal relationships or their own beliefs. These situations show the conflicting nature of characters, the inconsistency and disharmony that characterizes their psyche and generates chameleon attitudes, cowardice or violence against other peers. It is noteworthy that in all these contexts fear is an important catalyst in the psychological development of the characters. At the same time, the writer emphasizes the need of reconciliation with the past to ensure the heroes’ integrity. In comparison with the previous writings, Ulitskaya uses in this novel a wide arsenal of postmodernist techniques, such as spatial and temporal fragmentation, collages and intertextuality to describe the complex reality of Soviet period. In the end, the novel talks about the becoming of an entire nation, about the ways citizens found in order to survive these turbulent times.

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