SNY CZANGA IWANA BUNINA
THE DREAMS OF CHANG BY IVAN BUNIN

Summary/Abstract: The principle of three defines the narrative formation in the short story The Dreams of Chang by Ivan Bunin. The account of past and present life of the main protagonist, the so-called captain, is related by an abstract narrator, the dog Chang, and by himself. They achieve this on three different levels of narration. The observation of specific relations (formal and semantic) which exist between the respective narrators is convincing proof that there is a strong bond between them. Narrative organization of this type confirms the general ideological — artistic conception of the work. The three isolated levels of narration and of the three narrators conform to the principle of three, according to which the ideological meaning of the short story — the existence of three “truths” — is realized. The method, by which the problem posed in The Dreams of Chang is solved, is the juxtaposition of two “truths”; this leads the way to the explanation of the third, primary “truth”. The ideological layer reveals another compositional dominant of the short story — the principle of contrast. In the sphere of formal solutions, the formation of the plot in two intertwining and semantically opposed time-spatial planes conforms to this principle. Moreover, the specificity of the structure of The Dreams of Chang expresses itself in the dialectical unity of the ideological meaning and formal solutions.

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