Рoetics of the chronotope in В. Рidmogylny’s story «Вeggar»
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.31548/philolog0(272).2017.0124%20-%20133
Abstract
The purpose of the article is to investigate the complex of spatial and temporal coordinates in V. Pidmogylny’s story «Beggar». The given issue is very relevant and necessary for the modern literary studies, because the writer’s prose, in which the important problems of human existence are violated, is not fully explored. Realization of the purpose led to the solution of such tasks: to analyze the specificity of the chronotope and the peculiarities of the artistic text’s poetics.
The psychoanalytic and psychological approaches, that were directed into the characters’ inner world, as well as elements of the interrelated historical-genetic method, which was used for the clarification of the essence of the text’s time-space organization, and historical-functional, used for the definition of the author’s model of the chronotope in the story of V. Pidmogylny, were aimed in the process of the research.
A typical feature of V. Podmogylny’s individual style is the image of the city. The author is a master of urban landscape. The image of the city, whose spatial plane is realized through the temporal concept of infinity, in the analyzed story «Beggar» appears in the form of an insider. The writer, to a greater extent, uses words with the semantics of sound and movement, because the movement is life. That is, the author of the work depicts the inexorability of the life cycle, the regularity of which is the change of some people by others, and the city with its iron roofs and stone walls will remain a static point. This pattern V. Podmogylny shows through the fate of the cripple and beggar Timish. The tragic case, that the artist presents in the story in a retrospective key, which contributes to the expansion of the story’s time-spatial parameters, threw Timish out of the boundaries of full-fledged life. Awareness and acceptance of his injury is a turning point in the hero’s existence. The protagonist of the story is very difficult to overcome his illness, he is angry with the whole world. V. Podmogylny shows the process of accumulation of anger in Timish’s consciousness. In the man’s soul settled inscrutable sorrow and loneliness, feelings of sadness and insults. As we see, the author skillfully reproduces the internal state of the protagonist, who was embraced by a painful feeling of uselessness, indifference and meaninglessness of life.
Homogeneity of the main character’s life, who for three years was forced to live in the same «scenario», asking for alms, emphasizes the fixation of the chronotop in the analyzed work. In addition, such monotony is becomes evident against the backdrop of the dynamic movement of urban life. The protagonist of the work did not become a part of the city, he tries to resist it, constantly sending an unceasing crowd of people his anger and hatred. In the analyzed work we observe the contrast in the image of the space of the «gigantic» city and the countryside.
It is worth noting, that in V. Podmogylny’s story it is possible to observe the relationship between the spatial and temporal planes. The city is lined up in the daytime, and the description of the countryside is revealed through the temporal coordinate of the night. The night serves as a kind of salvation from various problems and disadvantages, but Timish didn’t have the protection and peace neither in the daytime nor at night. In the daytime the protagonist seems to be at work, because he considers his begging as his profession. And at night, staying alone with his thoughts, the man suffers from mental and physical pain.
The statics of the character’s external existence is opposed to the dynamics of his inner life, which is emphasized by the portrait detail of the eyes, which makes his portrait characterization psychologically motivated. The mobility of the eyes emphasizes the thirst for life, the meaning of which after injury was reduced to «...two things: money and pleasure of the flesh». That is, Timish is still a young man, he says himself about it, and although he realizes that the light of a happy future for him has been extinguished. The hero cannot accept what happened to him, he has a sharp sense of the life’s injustice.
V. Podmogylny skillfully depicts the protagonist’s state at the critical moment of his life, when Timish finally decided to tell about his feelings to the prostitute Galka. Indeed, the author delves into the depths of the character’s soul, depicting with great artistic penetration and psychological precision all the tension of the situation. V. Podmogylny masterfully uses artistic means of hyperbole; metaphor and comparison emphasize the inexpressible suffering and mental torment of the protagonist. Even more despair covered Timish after Galka’s refusing to sleep with him.
The author does not provide any anticipatory projection regarding the further fate of the character. The composite reception of the openness of the work’s final allows the reader to independently analyze the situation that has developed, and formulate his own conclusion. In our opinion, the night of confession became the decisive night in his life, and at the time of the beating the hero was agree to accept the death.
As we can see, the time-spatial organization of V. Podmogylny’s story «Beggar» is original, distinctive and polyphony. The interconnection of spatial and temporal planes, for implementation of which the writer uses an artistic method of contrast, is typical for the analyzed text. The action of the work is limited by the time frame of the present, the past, that is, it does not have a direct chronological sequence of events. The temporal parameters of the story are realized through the time coordinates of day and night, through which spatial points of the city and the countryside are outlined. Laconic landscape images of the nighttime dominate in the analyzed text. Their dominant functional load is the disclosure of the character’s inner world, the image of the binary nature of his external and internal life, as well as the reflection of the mood and Timish’s mental state. The statics of the protagonist’s existence is opposed to the dynamics of the city’s life, the image of which is skillfully created by the writer on the pages of his work. The prospect of the further research determines the analysis of the spatial plane of the city on the material of V. Podmogylny’s small prose.
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