Representation Of Space In The Novel Chapayev I Pustota By Viktor Pelevin Cover Image

Репрезентация пространства в романе Виктора Пелевина Чапаев и Пустота
Representation Of Space In The Novel Chapayev I Pustota By Viktor Pelevin

Author(s): Anastasija Osina, Inga Vidugirytė
Subject(s): Visual Arts, Russian Literature, Theory of Literature, Geopolitics
Published by: Vilniaus Universiteto Leidykla
Keywords: Pelevin; Chapaev and the Void [Buddhas Little Finger]; geocriticism; literary mapping; picture; landscape; space and place;

Summary/Abstract: The article deals with the analysis of the representations of space in the novel Chapaev and Void by Viktor Pelevin. The theoretical background of the research is based on the works of Bertrand Westphal and Robert Tally on geocriticism and literary cartographies. The authors seek to underline those aspects of the novel that reveal the refferentiality, transgressivity and spatiotemporality of the space represented in the text. In the novel, there are maps which suppose the relation of the fictive space to the reality as well as pictures that represent places already known from the creative works of Russian literature or visual arts. Thus the main character’s leaving for the void is the same as the author’s departure from the tradition of Russian literature. At the same time, this tradition persists as the “collective visual” that serves for Pelevin as an archive for the visual spatial images / pictures of the novel. Pelevin is keen on the observer and his interpretation of the visual images, what makes his novel highly topical in the context of the recent geopolitical catastrophes of the world.

  • Issue Year: 58/2016
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 34-51
  • Page Count: 18
  • Language: Russian