The Image of the City in the Prose of S. N. Durylin

About the author:

Natalia A. Nepomnyaschikh, Cand. Sci. (Philol.), Senior Researcher, Institute of Philology, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Novosibirsk); alkat@ngs.ru; ORCID: 0000-0001-5958-0554

Abstract:

Motivational and semiotic analysis of S. N. Durylin’s prose makes it possible to reveal in his prose motifs that are repeated in descriptions of provincial cities: a bell ringing denotes a connection between the earthly and the heavenly; gold, silver, radiance are a sign of belonging to the mountain world, bright colors are a sign of the fullness and prosperity of life, the well-being of the city and its inhabitants. The action in the novellas “Monsieur-cat”, “Notes of Yelchaninov” (“The Chamber of My Memory”) and the novel “Bells” by S. N. Durylin takes place in small district towns. These cities are arranged in a similar way, their blissful appearance contrasts sharply with the previous literary tradition of depicting the Russian province, for example, the iconic Okurov town by M. Gorky, in relation to which Durylin is polemical. Durylin’s earthly city, like all earthly life, is always a reflection of the heavenly, the higher: the model for the provincial towns — Khlynova, Kaluga, Temyan — is the invisible city of Kitezh, the image of which the writer creates back in 1916 in the Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh. The idea of ​​the heavenly essence of the earthly appearance of each of the Durylin townships is embodied through color and sound codes. Durylin’s color and sound images are contrasted with those in the “Okurov Town” written by M. Gorky and similar images in the novel “Bells” written by I. V. Evdokimov (1926). The world of urban life in Durylin’s prose is bright, colorful and harmonious, “gloom” and darkness come to cities as a harbinger of trouble and social cataclysms, while in Gorky’s prose and the tradition that follows him, the province is a “wild wilderness”, dark in all meanings of the word.

References:

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