Игра с дискурсивными практиками и литературными жанрами в творчестве Вл. Сорокина на материале романа «Голубое сало»

Abstract

This article is devoted to one of the popular modern Russian novels – “The Blue Fat” by Vladimir Sorokin. The highlight of the article is the transformation of classical literature discourses and genres in the novel. According to V.L. Shunikov, the style of the novel explicates the author’s creative intension, that’s why the narrative analysis is all-important for its adequate interpretation. This part of the novel poetics has never been subjected to a thorough investigation within the frames of contemporary humanities before: the article is aimed at filling up the gap. The stylistic experiment in Sorokin’s novel is connected with the epistolary discourse and is based on its epistolary literary genres first of all. It shows the way of this discourse transformation and the internal world of the novel itself compared with the classical epistolary prose. For example, - as only one character writes the letters, there is not even a chance for intercommunication, therefore the dialogue becomes virtual. While reading the letters we discover Boris Gloger’s passion, strong and sexually brutal, instead of that consequential development of sense, idealistic and platonic, characteristic of sentimental novels. Gloger’s intentions are even more complicated – the epistolary features of the letters are combined with the diary style. Vl. Sorokin does not only change the epistolary narrative and genres, but also saves some of their important elements. Boris Gloger is similar to characters of the 19th century Russian epistolary novels: he is “bestown” with loneliness and lack of understanding by the others. The novel internal world is quite pretentious because many genres are mixed in Sorokin’s work, science fiction among them. The new reality after a nuclear catastrophe is depicted in geopolitical and ethno-cultural peculiarity, alongside with the biology of new “humans” and their linguistic competence. The most interesting phenomenon in Sorokin’s novel is deconstruction of epistolary style idioms in the character’s pidgin. It makes the language of the novel “crossword-like” and altogether difficult for reader’s perception. The novel transformation of the epistolary discourse refreshes the very strategy of this genre thus proving its vitality in the contemporary literature.