UDC

821.161.1.09

Authors

Zaver Tatyana Vladimirovna
Postgraduate Student, Humanitarian Institute, Severodvinsk Branch of Northern (Arctic) Federal University named after M.V. Lomonosov (Arkhangelsk, Russia)

Abstract

The paper dwells on the urban theme in Yuri Trifonov’s Moscow Cycle. This theme, defining the problems
and aesthetics of Trifonov’s works, is studied through the prism of everyday life of their characters –
inhabitants of barracks and communal apartments. Poverty, overcrowding, lack of freedom and the
atmosphere of moral suffocation were the key negative factors of the urban dweller in the 1960s –
1970s, which are emphasized by the faceless urban landscape. The paper analyzes the motifs of
urbanization, exile of the characters and disappearance of the house and the city as they used to be.
The author of the article notes a clear contrast between the urban and natural landscapes in the novellas,
but at the same time points out that Yuri Trifonov does not clearly state the idea of exclusive moral purity
of the nature and depravity of the city, whose inhabitants have lost their traditions and forgotten their roots.
The city house appears to be unstable and unreliable; it is embodied in the images of “aquarium house”,
“ship house”, “tower house” and “stone mountain”. On the other hand, the city is regarded as an aggressive
structure tending to expand and absorb the surroundings. The city and the house are presented in the
article as a complex organism, constantly changing itself and transforming the lives of its inhabitants.

Keywords

urban prose, historical background, urbanization, Moscow Novellas, motif of exile, motif of disappearance of the city

References

1. Selemeneva M. V. Poetika povsednevnosti v gorodskoy proze Yu.V. Trifonova [Poetics of Everyday Life in the Urban Prose of Yuri Trifonov]. Izvestiya Ural’skogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, 2008, vol. 59, no. 16, pp. 195–208. 
2. Selemeneva M.V. Khudozhestvennyy mir Yu.V. Trifonova v kontekste gorodskoy prozy vtoroy poloviny XX veka: dis. … d-ra filol. nauk [Yuri Trifonov’s Artistic World in the Context of Urban Prose of the Second Half of the 20th Century: Dr. Philol. Sci. Diss. Abs.]. Moscow, 2009. 537 p. 
3. Sharavin A.V. Gorodskaya proza 70–80-kh godov XX veka: dis. ... d-ra filol. nauk [Urban Prose of the 1970s – 1980s: Dr. Philol. Sci. Diss. Abs.]. Bryansk, 2001. 486 p.