"Zatesi" by V. P. Astafiev: lyrical-philosophical miniatures in the system of small forms of the "First notebook"

Abstract

The article analyzes the lyrical nature of the miniature by V.P. Astafiev "The Fall of the Leaf", which is included in the Notebook under the same title of his book "Zatesi". The study is based on the works of the researchers (E.V. Kapinos, E.Y. Kulikova, A. Hansen-Loewe, etc.) of small forms of the twentieth century absorbing the properties of verse forms. The method of motif analysis used by the authors of the article allows them to reveal the features of the Sophian tradition and to show how change and correlation of various facets of the eternal feminine becomes a force organizing the lyrical plot. The authors figure out the main technique of likening man's retiring from the world to the fall of a birch leaf from the tree. Multiplicity of the shades of this state lying at the basis of the lyrical plot is revealed in the course of analysis. It is shown how Astafiev creates an image as long as eternity via reiteration, strings of homogeneous members, anaphora, and associations. The authors describe a specific character of the lyrical subject: the lyrical narrator close to the writer is depicted as able to, firstly, engulf in his inner world outer space, which allows him "to see the essential properties of existence in the bearings of the Eternity", and, secondly, be a translator of the "natural consciousness", i.e. demonstrate the features of super vision.