Domestic family novel of the 1930-70s in the socialist realist context

Annotation

The aim of the article is to identify the key features of the family novel in G. Markov’s “The Strogovs”, V. Kochetov’s “The Zhurbins”, and A. Ivanov’s “The Eternal Call”. The following research methods were used: comparative-historical, typological, method of holistic analysis of the artwork. It was found that, on the one hand, socialist realist family novels combined family "problems" with well-known socially engaged ideas (confrontation of “their own” and “strangers”, depiction of class struggle, consistent demonstration of the perniciousness of private property, causing “everything bad” to come to life, showing the sacrifice of their own and other people's lives for the sake of “common” interests by improbably “conscious” positive heroes). On the other hand, at the height of socialist realist art, it is the family chronicle that becomes almost the only type of novel form that inherits the classical traditions of the family novel and retains its key properties (the linearity of the narrative, the correlation between the events of the novel and the events of history, the special role of the chronotope of the home, the principle of the motif of kinship and genetic memory), as exemplified by the novels of G. Markov and V. Kochetov. The history of one family in A. Ivanov’s “Eternal Call” becomes a reflection of the history of an entire country and an entire nation, combining joy and sorrow, happiness and grief, good and evil. Family is the main thing in the life of a person, people and the state as a whole. A. Ivanov’s “The Eternal Call” reflects the process of transformation of the family novel into a family chronicle, thanks to the expansion of narrative frameworks, construction of epic chronotope, comprehension of private destinies against the background of history. Not only social and historical events, but above all personal morality as the morality of the family and the moral values of the family become the reference points in the choice of the heroes’ life course.

Keywords

family novel, family chronicle, socialist realism, chronotope of the house, family theme.

Literature

1. Bakhtin M. M. Collected Works. Vol. 3: Theory of the Novel (1930–1960). Moscow: Languages ​​of Slavic Cultures, 2012. 880 p.
2. Dashevsky V. A. Family and History. (On the Problem of Traditions and Innovations in the Genre of Family Chronicles) // Man and Society. Problems of Contemporary Soviet Literature. Sverdlovsk, 1966. Collection of works. 47. Pp. 5–32.
3. Dzhioeva A. T. Traditions of the Family Novel in Russian Prose of the Twentieth Century: Abstract of Cand. Sci. (Philological) Dissertation. Nizhny Novgorod, 2019. 23 p.
4. Dzhioeva A. T., Osmukhina O. Yu. Genre transformation of the family novel in modern Russian prose // Genre. Style. Image: current issues in the theory and history of literature: interuniversity collection of articles / scientific ed. D. N. Chernigovsky. Kirov: Vyatka State University, 2013. Pp. 9–11.
5. Ivanov A. S. Eternal call: novel: 3 v. Moscow: Amalthea, 1993. V. 1. 575 p.; V. 2. 351 p.; V. 3. 383 p.
6. Clarke K. Soviet novel. History as a ritual. URL: http://www.fedy-diary.ru/?p=2689 (date accessed: 09/04/2023)
7. Kochetov V. A. Zhurbiny: Novel. Moscow: Sov. Rossiya, 1980. 386 p.
8. Markov G. M. Strogovy: Novel. Chisinau: Lit. artistike, 1987. 575 p.
9. Osmukhina O. Yu. Specifics of the embodiment of the theme of family in domestic prose at the turn of the 20th–21st centuries // Bulletin of the Nizhny Novgorod University. N. I. Lobachevsky, 2015. No. 1. Pp. 286–289.
10. Tomashevsky B. V. Theory of Literature. Poetics. Moscow: Aspekt Press, 1996. 280 p.

The study was supported by grant No. 23–18–
01007 from the Russian Science Foundation, https://rscf.ru/project/23–18–01007/; Russian Christian Humanitarian Academy
named after F. M. Dostoevsky1. Bakhtin M. M. Collected Works. Vol. 3: Theory of the Novel (1930–1960). M.: Languages ​​of Slavic Cultures, 2012. 880 p.
2. Dashevsky V. A. Family and History. (On the Problem of Traditions and Innovations in the Genre of Family Chronicle) // Man and Society. Problems of Contemporary Soviet Literature. Sverdlovsk, 1966. Collection of articles. 47. Pp. 5–32.
3. Dzhioeva A. T. Traditions of the Family Novel in Russian Prose of the Twentieth Century: Abstract of a PhD thesis in Philology. Nizhny Novgorod, 2019. 23 p.
4. Dzhioeva A. T., Osmukhina O. Yu. Genre Transformation of the Family Novel in Modern Russian Prose // Genre. Style. Image: Current Issues in the Theory and History of Literature: Interuniversity Collection of Articles / Scientific Ed. D. N. Chernigovsky. Kirov: Vyatka State University, 2013. Pp. 9–11.
5. Ivanov A. S. Eternal Call: novel: 3 v. Moscow: Amalthea, 1993. V. 1. 575 p.; V. 2. 351 p.; V. 3. 383 p.
6. Clarke K. The Soviet Novel: History as Ritual. URL: http://www.fedy-diary.ru/?p=2689 (date accessed: 09/04/2023)
7. Kochetov V. A. Zhurbiny: Novel. Moscow: Sov. Russia, 1980. 386 p.
8. Markov G. M. The Strogoffs: A Novel. Chisinau: Literary Artistics, 1987. 575 p.
9. Osmukhina O. Yu. Specifics of the Embodiment of the Theme of Gender in Russian Prose at the Turn of the 20th–21st Centuries // Bulletin of the Lobachevsky University of Nizhny Novgorod, 2015. No. 1. pp. 286–289.
10. Tomashevsky B. V. Theory of Literature. Poetics. Moscow: Aspect Press, 1996. 280 p.

This research was supported by grant No. 23–18–
01007 from the Russian Science Foundation, https://rscf.ru/project/23–18–01007/; Russian Christian Humanitarian Academy named after F. M. Dostoevsky