ANDROGYNOUS MOTIVES IN LENA ELTANG’S NOVEL “STONE MAPLES” (“KAMENNYE KLEYNY”)
DOI: 10.23951/1609-624X-2021-6-135-143
Introduction. Lena Eltang’s novel “Stone Maples” fits into the traditional, since antiquity, interpretation of the androgynous image associated with the idea of “reintegration of opposites” (M. Eliade), the problem of finding the Other to gain the anthropological and ontological completeness and integrity of the individual. The aim is to analyze the semantics of the androgynous motif in L. Eltang’s novel “Stone Maples”. The theoretical and methodological basis of the research is the work of M. Eliade “Mephistopheles and Androgynes”, the research of I. A. Edoshina, E. S. Turutina, N. A. Kopylova, devoted to the image of androgynes in the literature of the Silver Age and philosophy. Results and discussion. In “Stone Maples”, androgynous motifs are manifested in the conflicts between the central characters of Sasha Sonley and Llewellyn Elderberry, the half-sisters of Sasha and Edna. Androgynous motifs are presented in several versions: homosexual attraction, “intersex disguises”, sacrifice, as well as through specific metaphors of connecting two people into a harmonious whole “author-reader”, “hotel hostess-guest”. Finding love, which provides the anthropological and ontological completeness of being, is fraught with difficulties (motives for passing tests, solving riddles, choosing a betrothed). L. Eltang fundamentally distances hirself from the bodily semantics of the androgynous motif, actualizing its symbolic meaning: unity with the second half is interpreted as a meeting of the author with his reader, who is ready to become a co-author. Conclusion. Androgynous motifs reveal the themes of love and creativity in the novel. Only the acquisition of the Other gives the fullness and meaning of existence.
Keywords: Lena Eltang, modernism, literature of Russian emigration, motif, androgyne
References:
1. Mikhaylova G., Samoylenko A. Khudozhestvennaya kartina mira v romane Leny Eltang “Kamennye klyony” [Artistic picture of the world in the novel by Lena Eltang “Stone maples”]. Literatura. Vil’nyus, 2013, no. 55 (2) (in Russian). URL: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/296687077_HUDOZESTVENNAA_KARTINA_MIRA_V_ROMANE_LENY_ELTANG_KAMENNYE_KLENY (accessed 3 February 2021).
2. Edoshina I. A. Ontologiya modernizma: fragmentarnost’ i tselostnost’ [Ontology of modernism: fragmentation and integrity]. In: Kudozhestvennoye soznaniye modernizma: istoki i mifologemy [Art consciousness of modernism: origins and mythologems]. Moscow, Kostroma, RGGU; KGU im. N. A. Nekrasova Publ., 2002. Pp. 52–159 (in Russian).
3. Kopylova N. A. Ideya androginnosti v antichnoy kul’ture [The idea of androgyny in ancient culture]. Uchenye zapiski Tavricheskogo natsional’nogo universiteta imeni V. I. Vernadskogo. Seriya “Filosofiya. Kul’turologiya. Politologiya. Sotsiologiya”, 2014, vol. 27 (66), no. 1, pp. 97–104 (in Russian).
4. Turutina E. S. Androginnost’ kak vyrazheniye antropologicheskogo smysla lyubvi v gendernoy dekonstruktsii otechestvennogo filosofsko-kul’turologicheskogo diskursa [Androgyny as an expression of the anthropological meaning of love in the gender deconstruction of the domestic philosophical and cultural discourse]. Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo pedagogicheskogo universiteta – TSPU Bulletin, 2006, vol. 7, pp. 98–105 (in Russian).
5. Eliade M. Mefistofel’ i Androgin, ili Tayna tselostnosti [Méphistophélès et l’Androgyne]. Ed. S. S. Tavasherniya. Saint Petesburg, Aleteyya: Universitetskaya kniga Publ., 1998. URL: http://askrsvarte.org/pub/downloads/mefisto.pdf (accessed 13 February 2020) (in Russian).
6. Shishlova E. E. Psikhologicheskaya i filosofskaya refleksiya fenomena androgina kak postgendera [Psychological and philosophical reflection of the androgynous phenomenon as a postgender]. Vestnik MGIMO Universiteta – MGIMO Review of International Relations, 2014, no. 1 (34), pp. 244–253 (in Russian).
7. Gasparov B. M. Literaturnye leytmotivy. Ocherki po russkoy literature XX veka [Literary leitmotifs. Essays on Russian literature of the twentieth century]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1994. 303 [1] p. (in Russian).
8. Silant’ev I. Motiv kak problema narratologii [Motive as a problem of narratology]. Kritika i semiotika. Vyp. 5 [Criticism and semiotics. Issue 5]. Novosibirsk, Institute of philology of the Siberian branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Publ., 2002. Pp. 32–60 (in Russian).
9. Eltang L. Kamennye klyony [Stone maples]. Moscow, AST: Astrel’ Publ., 2009. 414 p. (in Russian).
10. “Pisatelyu ne stoit obizhat’sya na stranu, gde zhivut ego chitateli”: Interv’yu Leny Eltang Ol’ge Bubich [“A writer should not be offended by the country where his readers live”: Interview of Lena Eltang to Olga Bubich]. Belorusskiy zhurnal [Belorussky zhurnal]. 10.08.2015 (in Russian). URL: http://journalby.com/news/lena-eltang-pisatelyu-na-stoit-obizhatsya-na-stranu-gde-zhivutego-chitateli-438 (accessed 12 February 2020).
11. Plato. Sochineniya v chetyrekh tomakh [Works in four volumes]. Vol. 2. General ed. by A. F. Losev, V. F. Asmus, A. A. Takho-Godi. Note by A. F. Losev and A. A. Takho-Godi. Moscow, Mysl’ Publ., 1993. 528 p. (in Russian).
12. Gasparov B. M. Iz nablyudeniy nad motivnoy strukturoy romana M. A. Bulgakova “Master i Margarita” [From observations on the motivic structure of M. A. Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita”]. Daugava, 1888, no. 10, pp. 96–107 (in Russian).
13. Poleva E. A., Velichko O. P. Skazochnyy intertekst v romane Leny Eltang “Kamennye klyony” (chast’ pervaya) [Fairy-tale intertext in the Lena Eltang’s novel “Stone Maples” (part 1)]. Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo pedagogicheskogo univerdsiteta – TSPU Bulletin, 2020, no.3, pp. 53–62 (in Russian).
14. Nikanorova E. K. Burya na more, ili Buran v stepi (k voprosu o tipologii motivov). Stat’ya pervaya [Storm at the sea or snowstorm in the steppe (on the question of the typology of motifs). The first article]. Materialy k Slovaryu syuzhetov i motivov russkoj literatury. Vypysk 5 [Materials for the Dictionary of plots and motives of Russian literature. Vol. 5]. Ed. T. I. Pecherskaya. Novosibirsk, NSU Publ., 2002, pp. 3–36 (in Russian).
15. Nagina K. A. “Metel’nyy” mir v tvorchestve A. Bloka, A. Belogo, V. Bryusova na fone literaturnoy traditsii [“Blizzard” world in the works of A. Blok, A. Bely, V. Bryusov, on the background of literary tradition]. Vestnik SPbGU. Seriya 9. Filologiya. Vostokovedeniye. Zhurnalistika – Bulletin of St. Petersburg state University. Series 9. Philology. Orientalism. Journalism, 2011, no. 3, pp. 47–55 (in Russian).
16. Turysheva O. N. Metafory chteniya v tvorchestve Vladimira Sorokina [Metaphors of reading in the works of Vladimir Sorokin]. Tekst. Kniga. Knigoizdaniye – Text. Book. Book publishing, 2020, no. 22, pp. 89–109 (in Russian).
17. Poleva E. A. Androginnye motivy v romane Leny Eltang “Pobeg kumaniki” [Androgynous motives in Lena Eltang’s novel “Pobeg Kumaniki” (“Escape (Sprout) of the Brambles”)]. Sibirskiy filologicheskiy zhurnal – Siberian Philological Journal, 2021, no. 2, pp. 148–160 (in Russian).
( 468.61 kB ) 
( 461.91 kB )
Issue: 6, 2021
Series of issue: Issue 6
Rubric: LITERARY STUDIES
Pages: 135 — 143
Downloads: 553