The structure of the artistic conflict in the story by L. Petrushevskaya "Time Night"

Yaqiong Chzhan Postgraduate student; Department of Russian and Foreign Literature; Patrice Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University of Russia 6 Miklukh-Maklaya str., Moscow, 117198, Russia 2529483816@qq.com

Introduction

In the theory of literature, an artistic conflict is considered as a contradiction in the relationship between the characters of a work. Literary critics offer different definitions of this phenomenon, but their essence is similar. As A. G. Nagapetova notes, an artistic conflict can be represented as a collision, as a confrontation between characters or between character and circumstances, which underlies the action of the work. The conflict may not always be clearly expressed, especially in idyllic genres where the "situation" is more present. In the epic, drama and novel, conflict often becomes the central theme, and its resolution is the key point of an artistic idea ^[4].

L. Timofeev expands the concept of conflict as a system of contradictions that unites the work and reflects the struggle of images and ideas. M. Epstein also notes that conflict usually manifests itself in the form of a collision – a direct collision of the acting forces ^[1].

The conflict is often revealed through the plot and composition, becoming the center of the theme of the work. He determines the development of the plot, starting from the beginning and passing through the climax to the denouement. The development of the action is a key element of the conflict, where contradictions become more acute as the plot progresses.

But, as A. G. Kovalenko notes, conflict in a literary work is a multi–layered concept. Firstly, it reflects the opposite relationship between the various elements and semantic levels of the text. Secondly, the conflict may manifest itself in the internal contradictions of the author himself. Thirdly, it is related to the "potential difference" between the author and the text, which includes categories such as narrator, character and lyrical subject. These aspects together create a complex structure of conflict, enriching the work and deepening its meaning ^[2].

The artistic conflict in literature is the central element of the narrative, which determines the development of the plot and characters and is a clash of opposing ideas, actions and characters that form the central content and aesthetics of the work. Through conflict, the authors explore human nature, social problems and philosophical ideas, which makes literature deeper and more layered.

Conflict is inherent in all types of art. Conflict is the driving force in the work ^[7]. It arises from contradictions between characters, their desires, beliefs, or circumstances, and can be internal when the hero is fighting his own demons, or external when different personalities or forces collide. This tension creates a dynamic that captivates the reader, makes them empathize with the characters and reflect on moral issues.

Such a confrontation is present in the work of every writer and in all literary directions. It is also present in the work of L. Petrushevskaya, whose name, as T. G. Prokhorova put it, is one of the loudest in modern Russian literature ^[6].

Discussion

The relevance of studying the artistic conflict in L. Petrushevskaya's novella "Time is Night" is due to several factors.

The story was written in the post-Soviet period, when society was undergoing significant changes, and conflicts reflecting the internal and external contradictions of the characters allow for a deeper understanding of social realities and psychological states of people in conditions of uncertainty.

The characters of the story often face existential crises and internal conflicts. The study of these conflicts helps to reveal the complex emotional and psychological aspects of human nature, which makes the work relevant for analysis in the context of modern psychology.

Conflicts in the story "Time is Night" are often associated with themes of loneliness, misunderstanding and alienation. The study of these aspects allows us to understand how modern society affects personal relationships and the inner world of a person.

The artistic conflict in the story is also manifested through the unique style and techniques of the author. The analysis of the conflict makes it possible to identify the peculiarities of the author's narrative and language, which is important for understanding his artistic world. As I. Shirinich notes, "Petrushevskaya's artistic worlds remind the reader not of life, but of some kind of borderline between life and death. However, if you look at her work from another, more reliable side, Petrushevskaya shows the reader that these very unpleasant aspects of life are still an inseparable part of life" ^[10].

The conflicts in the work raise important philosophical questions about the meaning of life, love, death and human values. This makes the text relevant for discussion within the framework of philosophical and cultural thought.

Thus, the study of the artistic conflict in the story "Time is Night" not only deepens the understanding of the text, but also opens up new horizons for the analysis of social, psychological and philosophical problems relevant both in the era of writing and in the modern world.

"Time is Night" by Lyudmila Petrushevskaya was published in 1991, it is the diary of the main character, Anna Andrianovna, an elderly writer living in Moscow during the era of late socialism. The heroine of the story keeps a diary, reflecting her thoughts and experiences in conditions of social and cultural instability. As P. Ryzhova noted, this is "a chronicle of the life of a late Soviet family, written on behalf of the mother, an elderly poetess. Petrushevskaya plunges the reader into the short-lived hell of the 1980s: lack of money, scarcity, family squabbles, screaming children and feeble-minded old people, and in her presentation these everyday details begin to look like signs of fate, symbols of a human fate that no one will escape."

The work is permeated with themes of loneliness, the search for the meaning of life and complex human relationships. Anna is faced with internal conflicts and existential questions, which makes her image multi-layered and deep. L. Petrushevskaya masterfully conveys the atmosphere of time, as well as explores the psychology of her characters, which allows the reader to better understand their world and experiences.

The artistic conflict in the story "Time is Night" by Lyudmila Petrushevskaya manifests itself on several levels and includes both external and internal contradictions faced by the main character Anna Andrianovna.

Anna Andrianovna's internal conflict becomes the main engine of the plot and deeply reveals her personality, which is a complex image in which love and hate, care and manipulation, hope and despair are intertwined.

Anna lives in extreme poverty, which leads to constant stress and conflict both within the family and within herself. Her monologue-complaint reflects not only suffering, but also contradictions: She considers love to be the main meaning of life, but her actions often lead to the destruction of ties with loved ones. The dichotomy of her character is manifested in the fact that, despite her desire to help her children, she does not realize that she herself is the source of their suffering: "I save everyone all the time! I'm the only one in the whole city..." ^[5]. Disregard for generally accepted norms of behavior (the heroine has no doubt that she has the right to read her daughter's diary), social dominance, a tendency to manipulate and use others are constantly emphasized in the text of the story (for example, this occurs in the story of her daughter's marriage).

Anna Andrianovna's mental state, characterized by a lack of self-criticism and zero empathy, exacerbates her internal conflict. Elements of an existential crisis add depth to her experiences, creating an image of a woman who is trying to fulfill herself as a mother and grandmother, but is faced with hopelessness and misunderstanding.

Thus, Anna Andrianovna's internal conflict not only drives the plot, but also serves as a metaphor for broader social and psychological themes inherent in Petrushevskaya's works. This study of human nature in conditions of poverty and alienation raises important questions about love, responsibility and the meaning of existence.

The interpersonal conflict between the main character Anna Andrianovna, her mother Sima, daughter Alyona and son Andrey, as well as Tima, her grandson, son of Alyona, is most vividly and multifaceted in the story.

Daughter Alina leads a messy personal life. As a result of a casual relationship, she gives birth to a child, which her mother, Anna Andrianovna, has to take care of. Alina does not show gratitude and does not appreciate her mother's efforts. Anna feels disappointed as her victims go unnoticed.

Son Andrey, having no clear life goals and a permanent job, becomes a source of constant frustration for Anna. He goes to prison for fighting, which adds hard feelings and worries to her life. Anna feels responsible for his fate, but does not see how to help him.

In addition, Anna Andrianovna is also forced to take care of her aging mother, who ends up in a psychiatric hospital. The relationship between them is complicated and tense. The mother requires attention and care, which further heightens the burden of Anna, who is already overloaded with caring for her children and grandson. Little Tim, Alina's son, often called the "child of hunger", shows aggression and cruelty to his grandmother. He screams, swears, can cause her physical pain. Since birth, the boy had no opportunity to observe anything other than constant quarrels between his "two goddesses", his mother and grandmother, and therefore adopted this manner of communication from them, and it is quite possible that he will pass it on to subsequent generations. Thus, evil, according to L. Petrushevskaya, is ineradicable. People are drawn into a vicious vicious circle from birth. These conflicts between personalities create a complex and intense picture of the heroine's life, reflecting the themes of loneliness and hopelessness.

The book "Time of Night" reflects the conflict of the family. L. Petrushevskaya often exposes the distortion of human relations, especially vividly manifested in the family, between a man and a woman, between mother and children. The abnormality and pathology of these relationships invariably lead her characters to despair and a sense of overwhelming loneliness. Anna Andrianovna experiences constant tension in relations with family members who do not show gratitude and are not able to cope with life difficulties on their own. "I believe that the most important thing in life is love." At the same time, "in the name of love" for her grandson, she expels her daughter with two young children from the house to the street, puts an end to the loser son, and takes her mother to a boarding school for psychochronics. The action takes place in conditions of appalling poverty, in the struggle for physical survival ^[3]. At the same time, poverty, saving every penny and envy of how neighbors crush soup bones at night do not prevent Anna Andrianovna from having many "stashes", which makes you wonder whether this poverty is real or hypertrophied by the sick mind of the main character.

In her work, L. Petrushevskaya reflected the catastrophic crisis of the family as a social institution. The impossibility of normal human relations is manifested in the fact that Petrushevskaya's dialogues often turn into monologues of the deaf: language is unable to convey the depth of despair and loneliness of her characters in the story. Language communication, instead of uniting the characters, only exacerbates their isolation and misunderstanding. Anna Andrianovna writes about her children: "They didn't need my love. Rather, they would have died without me, but at the same time, I personally interfered with them." This state of mind inspires thoughts of hopelessness and the end of existence. "My life is over," Anna Andrianovna declares several times. These reflections vary endlessly and become the leitmotif of the entire narrative.

According to O. R. Khomyakova, an artistic conflict is a special kind of communicative act that arises from antagonism and misunderstanding between the opposing sides. However, this conflict contributes to a deeper understanding for the reader. As R. Jacobson noted, it makes the reader "intellectually armed" in the face of interacting conflicting structures, helping him to comprehend them at a new level ^[9].

In general, L. Petrushevskaya, as an author, avoids direct assessments and condemnations, giving readers the opportunity to independently assess the actions of the characters. L. Petrushevskaya uses the technique of "splitting" the author into the author himself and his "deputy". The essence of bifurcation lies in the desire to demonstrate a vital phenomenon, while hiding oneself, exposing another "pseudo-author" who will "objectively" reveal the meaning of what is happening. From an aesthetic point of view, in fiction, duality primarily plays the role of a universal psychological device designed to explore the consciousness of character in all its fullness and depth. The juxtaposition of the author and the narrator can be seen in their guessed attitude towards the characters. From the author – a feeling of deep, but carefully hidden compassion; from the narrator – dispassionate resignation to fate and "indifference" to what is being told.

Artistic time and space is the temporal and spatial organization of events in a literary work. The artistic world, representing the author's model of the world, reconstructs an objective picture of the world. The artistic picture of the world is not only a system of ideas about the world, but also a system of principles for its reproduction, which assumes dominant categories and optional categories: "Dominant categories are categories that, first of all, realize the existence of a "picture of the world." These are oppositions that are characteristic of human consciousness at all stages of its existence, these are archetypes embedded in the depths of the human psyche" ^[8].

In Lyudmila Petrushevskaya's work "Time is Night", artistic time and space play a key role in creating an atmosphere and revealing the inner world of the characters. Night as a temporal context symbolizes not only the physical darkness, but also the emotional state of the characters – their fears, loneliness and hopelessness. The very title of the story emphasizes the importance of the night time as one of the central motifs of the work. The night symbolizes the fears, loneliness and hopelessness of the heroine. At night, Anna Andrianovna most actively reflects and thinks about her life, which increases the feeling of isolation and isolation.

The night in the work can be perceived as a metaphor for crisis and uncertainty. Time is not linear here; it is filled with memories, experiences and reflections of the characters. These time jumps allow the reader to gain a deeper understanding of their internal conflicts and emotional states. The night becomes a time of introspection, when the characters face their own fears and unresolved problems.

The dark time of day also symbolizes the gloomy and depressive state of the heroine, her indulgence of her inner demons. The events taking place during the day in real time are interspersed with the heroine's memories and reflections at night. This creates a sense of non-linearity of time, where the past, present and future merge into a single whole.

A work cannot exist outside of time and space. Chronos and topos are interconnected and inseparable from each other. The artistic time in the story "Time of Night" is closely intertwined with space, creating a unique chronotope reflecting the worldview of the main character Anna Andrianovna.

The spatial organization of events also emphasizes isolation and alienation. The place of action is often limited – it can be an apartment, a room or other enclosed spaces, symbolizing isolation and lack of exit. The space becomes a reflection of the inner state of the characters, their dependencies and conflicts.

The space of the apartment and the closeness of time reinforce each other, creating a feeling of a trap from which it is impossible to get out. Outside, there is a dangerous, hostile, evil-filled world with which the main character interacts to get money and food to prolong her miserable existence. Living in a cramped, crowded room with people and things increases the feeling of isolation and depression. Anna Andrianovna is deprived of personal space, her work is called "Notes on the edge of the table". The description of a cramped, poor and neglected apartment deepens the feeling of hopelessness and environmental pressure. The space of the apartment emphasizes the limitations and suffocating atmosphere in which the characters of the story live. The darkness, the night time of the day, also has a symbolic meaning, emphasizing the gloominess of the heroine's existence. The apartment becomes a symbol of isolation, hopelessness and lack of prospects. Such a conflict of time and space serves as an important tool for describing the inner conflict of the heroine.

At the same time, the night expresses the existential state of the heroine, symbolizing loneliness and a state of isolation, as well as reflecting the dark side of consciousness. At the same time, the night generates creativity. That is, darkness and further madness are combined with creation and creative power.

Thus, in the story "Time is Night" L. Petrushevskaya masterfully uses artistic time and space to create a deep emotional load, emphasizing the crisis of human relations and the inner struggle of the main character.

Conclusion

In the story "Time is Night" by Lyudmila Petrushevskaya, the artistic conflict is layered and meaningful. It involves internal and external contradictions that interact and reinforce each other, creating a tense narrative. Through this conflict, the author conveys the deep emotions and experiences of the heroine, her struggle with life circumstances, and also reflects the social and historical reality of the late Soviet period.

The conflict in the work not only reflects external contradictions, but also becomes an antinomy between the inner, closed world of the characters and the external reality. The author of the story L. S. Petrushevskaya focuses not on the transformation of the environment, but on how this environment is projected into the heart of the main character and breaks her spirit.