Cognitive distortions as a subject of depiction in A. Green’s short prose: “Birk’s Story”

UDC 821.161.1-3

https://doi.org/10.20339/PhS.5-21.119  

Zhang Rui,

PhD student of the History of Modern Russian Literature and

Contemporary Literary Process Department

Lomonosov Moscow State University

e-mail: kristinaruirui@yandex.ru

This article discusses the principles of psychologism in the early works of A. Green. The material for analysis is his “Birk’s Story” (1910), in which the realistic experience of describing human consciousness is combined with features of romantic psychopoetics. Lermontov’s traditions are indicated in the depiction of the protagonist’s psyche and his thinking. Focus is given to the specific features of the prose of from 1900 to 1910 with the display of the inner world of a person, namely, a modernist transformation of space, dissociation of the person, and the autonomy of consciousness. Later analyzed are the expressive details of the hero’s state before, during and after the failed suicide. A series of psychological techniques used by Green to create the image of a person in extraordinary circumstances are summarized: the motivation of illogical actions, the interconnection and sequence of mental impulses, the reflection of thoughts in reflection, the conflict of desire and logic, the introduction of an imaginary reality into the narrative, and the destruction of the effect of mystery. Two types of consciousness are correlated — the adequate and the pathological. The conclusion is made about the increased functionality of the image of consciousness in the plot and composition of “Birk’s Story”. The polemicity of the question about the degree of reliability and fiction of events are noted by Green. An assumption is made about their psychiatric basis — the image of such an ailment as a double orientation, which allows us to conclude that the narrative is quasi-fantastic.

Keywords: double, depersonalization, derealization, dissociation, psychologism, psychopoetics, self-analysis, consciousness.

References

1. Iezuitov A.N. Problemy psihologizma v literature // Problemy psihologizma v sovetskoj literature. Leningrad: Nauka, 1970. 397 s.

2. Zatseva I.A. Formirovanie hudozhestvennogo psihologizma v proze M.Yu. Lermontova: avtoref. dis. … kand. filol. nauk. Moscow, 2006.

3. Kolobaeva L.A. “Nikakoi psihologii”, ili Fantastika psihologii? (O perspektivah psihologizma v russkoi literature nashego veka) // Voprosy literatury. 1999. No. 2. S. 5–20.

4. Ginzburg L.Ya. O psihologicheskoj proze. Leningrad: Khudozhestvennaia literatura, 1976. 448 s.

5. Verzhbicky N.K. Svetlaia dusha // Zhizn’ Aleksandra Grina, rasskazannaia im samim i ego sovremennikami / sost. V. Kovsky. Moscow: Izd-vo Literaturnogo in-ta im. A.M. Gor’kogo; Feodosiia: Izd. dom “Koktebel”, 2012. S. 230–256.

6. Kovsky V.E. Blistaiushhii mir Aleksandra Grina // Literatura posle “ottepeli”: processy razvitiia, istoriia, kritika / V.E. Kovsky. Moscow: Izd-vo Literaturnogo in-ta im. A.M. Gor’kogo, 2012. S. 233–288.

7. Grin A.S. Sobr. soch.: v 5 t. / sost., vstup. st. V. Kovskogo; primech. A. Revyakinoi. Moscow: Khudozhestvennaia literatura, 1991. T. 2. 655 s.

8. Grin A.S. Sobr. soch.: v 5 t. / sost., vstup. st. V. Kovskogo; primech. A. Revyakinoi. Moscow: Khudozhestvennaia literatura, 1991. T. 1. 703 s.

9. Kant I. Kritika chistogo razuma // Slovo o sushhem. St. Petersburg: Nauka, 2008. 662 s.