Neo-sentimentalism of L.S. Petrushevskaya in the light of catharsis through laughter and tears

Abstract

The present article is dedicated to the problem of Neo-Sentimentalism, one of modern art discourses, represented by Lyudmila Petrushevskaya. The paper presents the allied notions of sentimentality, sentimentalism and neo-sentimentalism. The first refers to a personal quality, the second is a literary school, while the latter is a discourse with its roots going back to the first and the second. The distinctive feature of neo-sentimentalism is its synthetic character, the way it combines the uncombinable. Thus, it makes sense to study the works of Petrushevskaya in the light of catharsis through laughter and tears. One of the pioneers in combining such dissimilar discourses is Gogol. The combination of laughter and tears is brightly manifested itself in “The Overcoat” short story. Russian literary criticism classified this story as sentimental naturalism. However, the movie script by Petrushevskaya, based on the story by Gogol, belongs to neo-sentimentalism, since it presents the tearful component against the background of laughter. It is worth noticing how the writer combines anecdote and parable associated with two different catharses, in one script. The second text that served as a basis for the current research is “The Bohemia” story. It is ultimately concise: it consists of ten phrases only. It presents other forms of combining laughter and tears, determined by brevity. First of all, it is an intertextual reference to a music piece (Puccini’s “La Bohème” and a famous Soviet song) and to a Rembrandt painting. Secondly, it is an unusual form of narration, volatile between the figures of an uncertain storyteller and an impersonal narrator. Due to this form, in some cases the tearful aspect comes to the fore, and in the others the element of laughter is driven through. © Siberian Federal University. All rights reserved.