E. Zamyatin’s novel “We” through the prism of biopoetics

Cook, B. Chelovecheskaia priroda v literaturnoi utopii “My” Zamiatina / per. s angl. Olgi Barash. Boston : Academic Studies Press ; Sankt-Peterburg : Bibliorossika, 2022. — 407 s. — (Sovremennaia zapadnaia rusistika = Contemporary Western Rusistika). ISBN 979-8-887190-24-2 (Academic Studies Press) ISBN 978-5-907532-34-2 (Библиороссика)

UDC 82.09

DOI 10.20339/PhS.5-23.142  

Davydova Tatiana T.,

Doctor of Philology, Professor of the Russian Language and

Literary History Department

Moscow Polytechnic University

ORCID: 0000-0001-9924-503X

e-mail: t.t.davydova@gmail.com

The review analyzes the monograph by the American Slavist Brett Cook about human nature in the novel “We” by E.I. Zamyatin, special attention is drawn to the researcher’s methodology, biopoetics and evolutionary psychology, to a comprehensive analysis of the novel “We” and the Russian and English script texts based on this work, the study of the genre content of “We”, the dystopias of O. Huxley, J. Orwell and forms of psychologism in “We” in comparison with the psychologism of the prose of F. Dostoevsky and L. Tolstoy. The most promising scientific directions outlined by Cook are revealed: the creative history of the novel “We” and its textual criticism, the comparison of the aesthetics of Zamyatin the critic and mentor of the “Serapion Brothers” with the literary techniques of the author of “We”, the interpretation of the finale of this work and the images of the main characters D-503 and I -330.

Keywords: Brett Cook, biopoetics, evolutionary psychology, human nature, Zamyatin, novel “We”, utopia, dystopia, plot, script.

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