UTOPIA AND MYTH IN A. PLATONOV’S SHORT NOVEL “DZHAN” Cover Image

УТОПИЯ И МИФ В ПОВЕСТИ А. ПЛАТОНОВА «ДЖАН»
UTOPIA AND MYTH IN A. PLATONOV’S SHORT NOVEL “DZHAN”

Author(s): Marina Vladimirovna Zavarkina
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies
Published by: Петрозаводский государственный университет
Keywords: A. Platonov; “Dzhan”; myth; mythological consciousness; utopia; meta-utopia

Summary/Abstract: The article is concerned with the problem of interaction between such phenomena of A. Platonov’s short novel “Dzhan” as the mythand utopia. The myth and utopia of the studied short novel intersect both in Moscow and Asian chronotope. The world of the past,based on the myth and associated with the history of the people of Dzhan, conjugates with utopian reality of the story’s protagonist.This reality is fueled by the neo-mythological consciousness of the new socialist era. Mythologized consciousness of the charactersturns into the zone of interaction between the myth and utopia. In the works of the writer this phenomenon is manifested at the levelof two interrelated themes: memory and death. Zoroastrian myth becomes another area of interaction between the myth and utopia.The myth underlies the philosophical subtext of the story “Dzhan”. The myth is crucial to the disclosure of the main theme of thestory “Dzhan” – the theme of free will. The article analyzes two versions of the short novel. We came to a conclusion that the metautopianambivalence of the solution of the theme of the free will is, perhaps, a conscientious directive of the writer.

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