UDC

821.161.1(092)+821.161.1(092)+821.161.1(092)

Authors

Ol’ga V. Pospelova
Northern (Arctic) Federal University named after M.V. Lomonosov; ul. Smol’nyy buyan 7, Arkhangelsk, 163002, Russian Federation;
e-mail: kary17@yandex.ru

Abstract

The following literary works are studied here in terms of the Northern text of Russian literature: Aleksey Remizov’s poem “White Night”, which was included in the third passus (“Midnight Sun”) of his novella “Imprisoned”, connected with his northern exile; Mikhail Prishvin’s essays about the North “In the Land of Unfrightened Birds” and “The Bun”, as well as Evgeny Zamyatin’s short stories “Africa” and “Yola”, and his novel The North. The image of the white night is one of the prevailing images in the literary works comprising the Northern text of Russian literature. This can probably be explained by the fact that this image expresses the unique, indescribable beauty of the North. Furthermore, the image of the white night allows the authors to express their worldview: in the light of the midnight sun all the invisible mysteries of the day become uncovered, and when the time stands still the man is left face to face with the world. The image of the white night, created by the authors in the works above, is concise and ambivalent and contains a special mythopoetic symbolism. The analysis of the above-mentioned literary works revealed a number of similar motifs in the description of white nights by these very different authors, who for various reasons found themselves in the Russian North. The ethereal light of the white nights not only stirs and excites one’s imagination, but also alters the things around, thus obliterating the dividing line between the real world and the world of dreams and uncovering the mysteries of the universe. The image of the white nights is linked with the motifs of the dream, mist, fairy tale and miracle. In the literary works under study, the time between night and day is marked with a special crystalline unsteadiness, transparency and pureness.

Keywords

Northern text of Russian literature, A. Remizov, M. Prishvin, E. Zamyatin, image of the white night, image of the midnight sun

References

1. Galimova E.Sh. Khudozhestvennoe voploshchenie fenomena belykh nochey v Severnom tekste russkoy literatury [Artistic Embodiment of the Phenomenon of White Nights in the Northern Text of Russian Literature]. Geokul’turnoe prostranstvo Evropeyskogo Severa: genezis, struktura, semantika: sb. nauch. st.: materialy V i VI Pomor. chteniy po semiotike kul’tury [Geocultural Space of the European North: Genesis, Structure, Semantics: Proc. 5th and 6th Pomor Readings on the Semiotics of Culture]. Arkhangelsk, 2011, pp. 442–448.
   
2. Borisova N.V. Khudozhestvennoe bytie mifa v tvorcheskom nasledii M.M. Prishvina: dis. … d-ra filol. nauk [The Artistic Life of Myth in the Works by M.M. Prishvin: Dr. Philol. Sci. Diss.]. Yelets, 2002.
   
3. Sergeev O.V. Aleksey Remizov – uznik snov: poetika snovideniy v proze A.M. Remizova 1890–1910-kh gg. [Aleksey Remizov: A Prisoner of Dreams: Poetics of Dreams in A.M. Remizov’s Prose of the 1890s – 1910s]. Moscow, 2002.
   
4. Slavina O.Yu. Poetika snovideniy (na materiale prozy 1920-kh godov): dis. … kand. filol. nauk [The Poetics of Dreams (Based on the Prose of the 1920s): Cand. Philol. Sci. Diss.]. St. Petersburg, 1998.
   
5. Dvortsova N.P. M. Prishvin i A. Remizov (k istorii tvorcheskogo dialoga) [M. Prishvin and A. Remizov (on the History of Creative Dialogue)]. Vestnik Moskovskogo universiteta. Ser. 9: Filologiya, 1994, no. 2, pp. 27–33.
   
6. Dvortsova N.P. M. Prishvin i “shkola A. Remizova” [M. Prishvin and “A. Remizov’s School”]. Serebryanyy vek russkoy literatury: problemy, dokumenty [The Silver Age of Russian Literature: Problems and Documents]. Moscow, 1996.
   
7. Provotorov A.V. Tvorcheskiy dialog Alekseya Remizova i Mikhaila Prishvina [Creative Dialogue of Aleksey Remizov and Mikhail Prishvin]. Izvestiya Rossiyskogo gosudarstvennogo pedagogicheskogo universiteta im. A.I. Gertsena, 2009, no. 114, pp. 232–235.
   
8. Rozanov Yu.V. Prishvinskiy mif Alekseya Remizova [The Prishvin Myth of Alexey Remizov]. Voprosy literatury, 2004, no. 1, pp. 70–83.