Your shopping cart is empty.
Log in

Chronicle imitation as one of the stylistic devices in E. Verkin’s novel “Snark Snark”

E.S. Safron
$2.50

UDC 821.161.1-92:81`42
DOI 10.20339/PhS.4-26.030

 

Safron Elena A.,

Doctor of Philology, Associate Professor,

Professor of the Germanic Philology and Scandinavian Studies Department

Petrozavodsk State University

e-mail: 00inane@gmail.com


 

This article analyzes the poetics of Eduard Verkin’s novel “Snark snark”. In spite of classifying the text as postmodernist metafiction, which imitates horror and detective, the study demonstrates that the novel is also connected to the chronicle genre. The author argues that the chronicle model in the novel serves not only the purposes of parody but also becomes a structural principle of narrative organization. It examines the author’s specific reinterpretation of the chronicle canon as “lock fiction” — commissioned local history literature, which allows Е. Verkin to explore the problem of mythologization and the recreation of history in a contemporary provincial reality. “Lock fiction” helps to explore the key themes of the novel: total simulation, absurd as the foundation of existence, traumatic experience, and the artist’s responsibility for his work. Particular attention is paid to the mechanisms of chronicle stylization travesty: the characters focus on insignificant events and pay excessive attention to unimportant dates. The article analyzes the function of folkloresques — artificially created pseudo-folkloric texts and images (Admiral Chichagin, the hero Pera, the shushun). They enable characters to construct a new myth about the city of Chaginsk. The author concludes that by using intertextual references to Lewis Carroll’s absurdist poem and the canons of horror, E. Verkin creates a text rooted in the Russian cultural paradigm, where a rethinking of the chronicle genre becomes a means of reflection on the nature of memory, history, and the writer’s mission.

Keywords: E. Verkin, postmodernism, metafiction, chronicle, lockfic, folkloresque, horror, detective fiction, D.S. Likhachev

 

References

  1. Ageeva, E.A. Molokane // Pravoslavnaia entsiklopediia / pod red. Patriarkha Moskovskogo i vseia Rusi Kirilla. URL: https://www.pravenc.ru/text/2564076.html (20.12.2025).
  2. Bolshakova, A.Iu. Letopisnaia traditsiia v proze noveishego vremeni (oV.I. Likhonosove) // Vestnik UlGTU. 2021. No. 4 (96). S. 4–6.
  3. Verkin, E. Snark snark. Kn. 1: Chaginsk. Moscow: Inspiria, 2022. 768 s.; Kn. 2: Snega Entselada. Moscow: Inspiria, 2022. 704 s.
  4. Danilevskii, I.N. Povest’ vremennykh let: Germenevticheskie osnovy izucheniia letopisnykh tekstov. Moscow: Aspekt Press, 2004. 370 s.
  5. Denisova, I.V. Letopisnaia traditsiia v poezii B.I. Zhavoronkova // Slovo. Slovesnost’. Slovesnik: materialy Mezhregional’noi s mezhdunarodnym uchastiem nauch.-prakt. konf. prepodavatelei i studentov. Vyp. VI / otv. red. Iu.A. Iuzhakova. Riazan’: IP Koniakhin A.V., 2020. S. 8–10.
  6. Ivanova, I.N. Mifopoetika i fol’klor v romane E. Verkina «Snark snark» v kontekste noveishei otechestvennoi literatury // Biulleten’ KalmNTs RAN. 2023. No. 2. S. 83–96. https://doi.org/10.22162/2587-6503-2023-2-26-83-96
  7. Interv’iu: Eduard Verkin // Natsional’naia literaturnaia premiia «Bol’shaia kniga». 15.08.2023. URL: https://bigbook.ru/novosti/intervyu-eduard-verkin (21.12.2025).
  8. Kulikova, D. Motivy khorrora v romane E. Verkina «Snark snark» // Filologiia i kul’tura. Philology and Culture. 2024. No. 4 (78). S. 283–292. https://doi.org/10.26907/2782-4756-202478-4-283-292
  9. Lobin, A.M. Romany o Drevnei Rusi B.L. Vasil’eva kak novyi vitok evoliutsii istoricheskii prozy na rubezhe XX–XXI vekov // Filologicheskii klass. 2016. No. 4 (46). S. 69–73.
  10. Litvinova, V.M. Lingvostilisticheskii analiz russkikh interpretatsii «Okhoty na Snarka» L. Kerrolla // Filologicheskie nauki. Voprosy teorii i praktiki. 2018. Vyp. 2-1. URL: https://www.gramota.net/article/phil20180229/fulltext https://doi.org/10.30853/filnauki.2018-2-1.29 (14.12.2025).
  11. Likhachev, D.S. Razvitie russkoi literatury X–XVII vekov. Literatura i fol’klor v X–XIII vv. St. Petersburg: Nauka, 1998. 258 s.
  12. Likhachev, D.S. Russkie letopisi i ikh kul’turno-istoricheskoe znachenie. Moscow- Leningrad: Izd-vo Akademii nauk SSSR, 1947. 499 s.
  13. Lurie, Ia.S. K izucheniiu letopisnogo zhanra // Trudy otdela drevnerusskoi literatury. Institut russkoi literatury (Pushkinskii dom) RAN. S. 76–93. URL: http://lib2.pushkinskijdom.ru/Media/Default/PDF/TODRL/27_tom/Lurie/Lurie... (03.12.2025).
  14. Liubarskii, Ia.N. Vizantiitsy o dvigateliakh istorii (k probleme ideinykh techenii XI v.) // Obshchestvennoe soznanie na Balkanakh v srednie veka: mezhvuz. tematich. sb. / pod red. M.M. Freidenberg. Kalinin: KGU, 1982. S. 4–19.
  15. Mirzoev, V.G. Byliny i letopisi. Pamiatniki russkoi istoricheskoi mysli. Moscow: Mysl’, 1979. URL: https://lmkn.narod.ru/mirzoev/mirzoev6.html (02.12.2025).
  16. Moriakhina, K.V., Sarapulov, A.N. Legendy o Pere-bogatyre: vozmozhnoe vremia vozniknoveniia i ikh transformatsiia // Vestnik NASA. 2013. No. 1 (9). URL: https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/legendy-o-pere-bogatyre-vozmozhnoe-vre... (02.10.2025).
  17. Namzhilova, E.S. Letopisnoe nasledie v sovremennom kul’turno-obrazovatel’nom prostranstve Aginskogo Buriatskogo okruga // Vestnik BGU. Obrazovanie. Lichnost’. Obshchestvo. 2023. No. 3. S. 26–32. https://doi.org/10.18101/2307-3330-2023-3-26-32
  18. Petrovskaia, M.S. Bibleiskii d’iavol i demony (bѣsy) v retseptsii russkogo letopisaniia // Vestnik SPbGU. Iazyk i literatura. 2015. No. 4. S. 142–149.
  19. Prorokov, M. Pamiatnik admiralu Kopeikinu. Roman «Snark snark» Eduarzha Verkina // Kommersant. 2022. 29 sentiabria. No. 180. S. 11. URL: https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/5582921 (30.11.2025).
  20. Ranchin, A.M. Letopis’ // Literaturnaia entsiklopediia terminov i poniatii / pod red. A.N. Nikoliukina. Moscow: Intelvak, 2001. Stb. 440–441.
  21. Safron, E.A. Literatura uzhasov v Rossii. Moscow: Almavest, 2025. 142 s.   
  22. Tubylevich, R.E. Interpretatsiia Ioakimovskoi letopisi v romane M.D. Karateeva «Iarlyk velikogo khana» // Uchenye zapiski Petrozavodskogo gosudarstvennogo un-ta. 2021. No. 7. S. 85–92. doi: https://doi.org/10.15393/uchz.art.2021.670
  23. Tubylevich, R.E. Drevnerusskoe istoricheskoe povestvovanie kak istochnik istoricheskikh romanov 40–60-kh gg. XX v. (S.P. Borodin «Dmitrii Donskoi», V.G. Ian «Batyi», M.A. Rapov «Zori nad Rus’iu», M.D. Karateev «Bogatyri prosnulis’») // Vestnik Syktyvkarskogo un-ta. Seriia gumanitarnykh nauk. 2019. No. 3 (11). S. 25–42.
  24. Shakhmatov, A.A. Istoriia russkogo letopisaniia: v 2 t. T. 1: Povest’ vremennykh let i drevneishie russkie letopisnye svody. St. Petersburg: Nauka, 2002. 492 s.

 

 

© Vestnik Vysshey Shkoly (High School Herald) 2008—

siteperfect