Functions of author’s legends and traditions in the novel by A. V. Ivanov “The Rebellion’s Gold”

Abstract

The novels of Alexei Ivanov are a noticeable phenomenon in modern Russian literary life and attract the attention of literary critics. An important role in the artistic structure of the novel “The Rebellion’s Gold” is played by folklore-mythological elements, which are the original author’s system of pseudo-folklore texts created according to the model of traditional oral folk art. The focus of our attention is the functional significance of legends and traditions, manifold on the pages of the novel by A. Ivanov. It was revealed that the author’s legends and traditions in “The Rebellion’s Gold” are distinguished by polyfunctionality. On the one hand, they are used as a means of assessing and characterizing the characters, playing the role of “folk truth,” a moral landmark with which the actions of the characters of the novel are measured. On the other hand, they are used in the process of plot formation, ensuring the dynamics of events. The most important function of the author’s “folklore” in the novel is the world-modeling. With the help of folklore texts, the novel chronotope is saturated with magical elements that are relevant in modern neorealist works. At the same time, the author’s mythology goes beyond the limits of the artistic text and transfers its world-modeling properties to the real geographical space of the Urals, which undergoes remifologization. Thus, the author’s pseudo-folklore text turns into a way of reconstructing ancient meanings and creating a new national identity in a modern cultural situation.