The cyclic vector of realization of cultural memory in the novel "Chagin" by Evgeny Vodolazkin

Bezrukov Andrey Nikolaevich ORCID: 0000-0001-7505-3711 PhD in Philology Associate Professor, Ufa University of Science and Technology (Branch in Birsk) 452455, Russia, Republic of Bashkortostan, Birsk, Internatsionalnaya str., 120-V, sq. 9 in_text@mail.ru Other publications by this author

Evgeny Vodolazkin has already established himself quite firmly in the latest Russian prose as a master of the implementation of artistic intrigue. His novels – "Solovyov and Larionov", "Laurel", "Aviator", "Brisbane", "Justification of the Island" – are a vivid confirmation of this. The writer, in addition to forming a very dense intriguing plot, adding an ambiguous figurative series, manifesting his own point of view, deliberately uses the technique of artistic collision, but in an admittedly realistic way. There are similarities with the manner and style of organization of the literary canvas, for example, with Alexey Varlamov ^[1] ("The Mental Wolf"), Pavel Krusanov ("The King of the Head"), Zakhar Prilepin ("The Monastery"), Alexander Pelevin ("Pokrov – 17"), Guzel Yakhina ("Echelon to Samarkand"). It should be assumed that Evgeny Vodolazkin ^[2] appears in at least two guises – a writer embodying both a fictional, thought-out plan of events in texts, and a writer-historian who introduces blocks of cultural format into the artistic canvas of his works, because the influence of D.S. Likhachev on the formation of artistic thinking of E.G. Vodolazkin cannot be excluded. Therefore, the analysis of E.'s prose The turtleneck should be spherical, clearly nonlinear, and stepped. The semantic limits of the text, thus, will be revealed in a spectral rhythm, this will allow to pinpoint the singularity of the motives and ideas of his works, consolidate the writer's artistic thinking.

For Evgeny Vodolazkin, the course of novel events is not only a literal combination of situational episodes, it is also a carefully thought-out immanent dialogue with the reader. The subject of this work is the deciphering of the theme of memory in the novel by E. Turtleneck "Chagin". The purpose of the article is a parametric analysis of the principles of depicting this psychological process. The evaluation of the imaginative thinking of the main character of the novel, Isidor Chagin, is not excluded in the work, since memory cannot be considered separately from the hero's perception and perception of artistic reality. The methodological basis of the work is focused on comparative principles, as well as a conceptual assessment of the work of art, taking into account the systematization of the receptive connotations of the text. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that the novel has not yet been practically studied within the framework of this category, there is no proper assessment of the topic in the critical-analytical type mode. The materials, I think, can be useful practically in verifying the style, manner of writing, and artistic thinking of Evgeny Vodolazkin.

At the beginning of the article, it is worth noting that memory as such is one of the phenomena of stepwise cognition of the surrounding reality. At the same time, it not only captures the sensations of a literal assessment of what is happening, but also does not exclude the critical verification of accumulated experience. For a person, the role of memory is huge, memory regulates the connection with the present, since it is necessary to preserve a sense of reality. It is also focused on the past, which allows you to objectively adjust your own actions for the future, to give them a logically correct assessment. Consequently, memory is syncretically soldered to being as such, it is she who ontologically builds the metaphysics of human existence.

In literature, the topic of memory is almost always presented in complex historical and cultural sections. Memory connects time and space, makes it possible to relate one's own and others', partly to join the collective consciousness, while gaining an individual, but also to form separately / in particular a certain projection of the future based on the past.

Myths, oral folk art, literature of the XIX-XX centuries, and texts of the XXI century vector expand the artistic idea of memory, because writers, poets, playwrights complement and correct this rather complex category. In this article, using the example of Evgeny Vodolazkin's novel "Chagin", we consider the process of cognitive assessment of realities at the level of memory, while the memoristic artistic format presented in the text correlates with a number of works of modern Russian literature. This is quite justified, since the latest Russian prose often addresses the topic of memory in different planes of its implementation, and not only formal, but constructive: social, psychological, anthropocentric, philosophical.

The world, which turns out to be the basis for a work of art, is not always typologically verified. Neither A.S. Pushkin, nor F.M. Dostoevsky, nor L.N. Tolstoy, nor A.P. Chekhov could take as the basis of their texts only the reality in which they were. There were not enough projection visions for a larger horizon. It is worth noting that the writer's artistic consciousness is always broader and more voluminous. In this case, the moment of foresight, foresight, and prophecy is not excluded. When forming a text canvas, a complex coherent work takes place, a complex comparative process.

The realities of modern life are certainly interesting for readers, but the deliberate prevalence of the "literal" in the text compresses the actual analysis of reality, does not allow to highlight complex and contradictory moments of life in volume. Sometimes a simulation game is not enough, for example, in the mode of postmodernism (Viktor Pelevin, Tatyana Tolstaya), or postrealism (Sergey Dovlatov, Lyudmila Petrushevskaya, Mark Kharitonov). It should be noted that even the so-called deliberate "vector realism" of Dina Rubina, Victoria Tokareva, Igor Guberman does not allow the reader to feel the necessary freedom in the mode of reception of complex processes of the existential order.

Evgeny Vodolazkin also builds a variant of the syncretic paradigm in his texts within the framework of some kind of opposition to modern prose. It seems that his writing style is focused on deciphering a miracle in the modern world, a miracle not in direct reference to the etymology of this word, but in approaching and realizing a miracle as a process of overcoming oneself. E.G. Vodolazkin's novels are that conglomerate of knowledge that sets up a complex process of transformation / transition from one stage of development to another. At the same time, a conscious failure – an option – in the format of embodying the theme of memory is important and significant for the writer.

Cultural memory as a concept in novels, novellas, plays by Evgeny Vodolazkin is productive and effective: it is worth remembering "Aviator", "Brisbane", "Lavra", "Sister of Four", "Parodist", "Micropole". In most texts, memory does not have a literal, conceptual meaning, that is, it is not the primary basis of works, but upon closer examination, this category begins to reveal its meanings vector-wise, giving texts a voluminous semantic tone.

Most of the works of Evgeny Vodolazkin, in our opinion, are an attempt to warn the reader, to warn the recipient about the possible and inevitable fluctuation of the world, the violation of fused harmony. Human society has been increasingly caught in the fork of social, personal, and metaphysical responsibility lately, therefore, a choice must be made, but how correct it will be remains a question. Priorities and values are being transformed in the present, new ones must be established. The main thing is that the classics are leveled, although in the mode of adequate assessment, it is within its limits that the verified target face is a stable system of ethical and moral norms. A striking example of the build-up, layering of different emotional and cultural types and codes, models and formulas is the novel by E.G. Vodolazkin "Chagin" ^[3].

The hero of the novel, Isidor Chagin– is doomed, because he accumulates the legacy of the past, sometimes in a haphazard manner. The information flow that accumulates in the main character's memory does not bring empirical pleasure, does not allow to evaluate and verify a new path, to create a solid foundation of metaphysical order. Memory hinders Isidor Chagin, it becomes a test for him, a kind of quantum game, the way out of which is possible only with an obvious shift in priorities / destruction, or the literal death of the hero, which actually happens in the finale of the text.

The common name of the hero of the novel by E.G. Vodolazkin – Isidore – has adjacent parametric variants - it is both Orthodox, Greek, and Catholic. Different faith formations are layered in this nomination. At the same time, the stress, as a conscious author's version, falls on the second syllable. This confuses the reader, but also implements a program of difference in perceptions: from the traditional and the familiar to a clearly out–of-the-stable context. The hero of the novel, taking into account this interpretation, is in different historical and cultural planes, but the information component corrects his movement within his own chronotope. For Chagin, being in the present is not only to exist, for him it means to evaluate, interpret, as a fact, "not his" lived life, but with a focus on cultural types, signs, images. The singularity is triggered as the limit of the acceptable option. And for Chagin himself, the moment of being in reality ^[4] is not a property, it is only a banal convention that was formed over the course of his historical time – 1940 – 2018 (the years of his life). The parameters of the hero's "inner universe" are much wider and more voluminous.

The clash of the pagan and Christian world order in E.G. Vodolazkin's novel "Chagin", in our opinion, also complicates the overall picture of the perception of the text as a whole. For the reader, some specific limit would be more accessible and understandable, for the hero it is a cyclic vector of realization of cultural memory and a way of existence. The reversible form of events does not interfere with the implementation of the main idea of the author, the living of history is possible only in such conditions. Note that the reading mechanism will also change, epistolary fragments (even individual chapters of a different narrative type) are not accidental, which can be read in a different direction, clearly non-linearly. Memory stores everything about the past, what happened, forgiveness / oblivion in this case is impossible for the main character of Chagin's novel. The real world, unlike the artistic one, is increasingly gravitating towards the option of implementing revenge, retribution for what has been done. A person needs to "take revenge" in order to survive the state of struggle, it is difficult to exclude the eternal conflict of positions. For Evgeny Vodolazkin, for example, as for Pavel Kursanov ^[5], the purpose of the narrative is to demonstrate that you should not forget certain moments of the past, maybe even fully historical situations, because experience is an invaluable palette ^[6] of markers. Isidor Chagin can also be perceived by us as a frontier of freedom, because for the reader, the conceivable merges with what is happening, in the hero these categories ^[7] can be disconnected.

At the beginning of the novel, the setting is given that the hero is perceived by third-party characters as unique: "Once upon a time Isidor Chagin was famous. His amazing memory was admired. Sometimes there is doubt… It was hard to believe that a person is able to memorize a text of any complexity and store it in his head for as long as he wants" ^{[3, p. 9]}. They themselves are not able, sometimes, as they grow older, to keep in mind even the little that is necessary for some kind of identification: "Many witnesses of his [Isidore's] glory are already in the grave, and those who are alive are absorbed in opposing the inevitable" ^{[3, p. 9]}. Thus, the key feature of memory in evaluating the world is not only externally, but also internally, which is perhaps the most valuable and important thing for a person.

According to Yevgeny Vodolazkin, Isidor Chagin is an archivist (and more often with a capital letter). His fate has developed within the framework of certain actual restrictions, but over the years they do not complicate Isidore so much, habits become a kind of comfort zone. After Isidore's death, his archive, and these are four notebooks of notes, should be disassembled by his assistant, Pavel Sergeevich Meshchersky. The latter is skeptical about the figure of Chagin, he is both a mystery to him, and a copy, and a kind of parody of Chekhov's "man in a case". However, archivist Chagin is not so simple, and not so formal. The noumenon of memory develops a certain formula of life for the hero: "if there are no events, Isidore describes his thoughts and feelings. Especially the sensations" ^{[3, p.20]}. The description factor is subject only to a constructive, complex, not simple personality, tuned to evaluate its own, private existence in a spectral mode. The conditions for Chagin are the so-called abstract and concrete: These positions are "memory – diary", "thought / fixation – comprehension". In this case, the conceptual circle does not have a clear outline, it looks more like a horizon. The principle that "mystery should not become an everyday occurrence" ^{[3, p.17]} for Isidor Chagin, in our opinion, looks like a postulate.

Russian Russian literature and modern Russian prose ^{[8, 9, 10]} often have Evgeny Vodolazkin, the nomination of names as a variant of surnames has a figurative meaning, while the explication of meanings is quite simple. Arseny, Christopher from "Lavr", Innokenty, Geiger from "Aviator", Solovyov and Larionov from the novel of the same name, Gleb Yanovsky, Nestor from "Brisbane", etc. It can be considered that such a move is a kind of hoax by Vodolazkin, however, this is not the case. The writer creates a projection on the past, on the discourse of history, which actually determines the probable dialogue with the present. The plot outline of the novel "Chagin" is also supported by quite reliable, historical names. The cyclization of culture and the reversal of history are natural for the writer, they are also quite natural for the formation of the current one. The epigraph to the novel "Chagin" from Joseph Brodsky's poem "Odyssey of Telemachus" is not accidental:

"My Telemachus,

The Trojan War

It's over. I don't remember who won" ^{[3, p. 5]}.

The coordinates of the classics go out of the actual national canvas into the world space, and this is for the writer a variant of leveling the boundaries of memory. There is no specificity and place for it, there is literally no feminine and masculine, there is no social hierarchy. Most of the information stored in the annals of history, archives, records, notebooks, manuscripts has now acquired a moment of "silence" so much that it is difficult to "talk" the meanings, it is also difficult to compare them with their actual existence. Therefore, the introduction of such nominal nominations as Heinrich Schliemann, Daniel Defoe into the figurative composition of the novel "Chagin" is a vector of updating the knowledge already acquired.

The theme of memory, undoubtedly, in E.G. Vodolazkin is connected with the problem of getting out of the current situation, a kind of deadlock, from parametric reality. Chagin is not only the hero of a literal novel, he is a metrical figure. The vector of the aesthetic coordinates of the hero also becomes commensurate with the perception of the world, for him it is a living matter that must fluctuate with a literal change in moods, probably of a person, society, culture. The mobile nature of memory contains a complex censorship of changes in which something must be left and something must be eliminated. Isidor Chagin becomes precisely the object for which awareness is dynamically improving. It is difficult to grasp such a process, and it is no less difficult to follow it. The hero becomes a certain victim, but a victim who follows his own plan. Memory does not level the hero, it manifests his desire to be aware and give more to the reader. The model of spatial coordinates and temporal parallels turns into a complex rhizome of connotations in the novel "Chagin". For E.G. Vodolazkin, meaning is something to strive for, something to comprehend ontologically. The hero, as a manifesto of this, embodies what the author intended in full.

The diary of Isidor Chagin, which Pavel Sergeyevich Meshchersky is working on, is a form of objectification of the author's entire life. This childhood is filled with terrifying sensations from kindergarten, this is the school where the first feeling of falling in love with Lena Tsareva was experienced. Then the students, with a number of clarifications, for example, that "his first term paper was called "Marxist-Leninist understanding of memory" ^{[3, p. 33]}, or the case of the text of the speech of the dean of the Faculty of Philosophy at the congress, which Isidore was able to reproduce verbatim, etc. It was during these years that Chagin began to understand and analyze the property of his memory to evaluate it extremely, partly to conduct experiments. The vector of evaluation is supplemented in the course of artistic narrative by some more judgments, in our opinion, this is the commentary on the fate of Isidore. For example, that "the products of consciousness reflect being" ^{[3, p. 40]}, or "and the impossible is possible" ^{[3, p. 42]}, etc. A certain twist of fate, somehow connected with memory, becomes a provocation on the part of Nikolai Petrovich and Nikolai Ivanovich (employees of the Department of Internal security and civil defense – Coffin), who want to introduce Chagin as a precedent into the so-called Shlimanov circle in order to preserve the "safety of libraries" ^{[3, p. 47]}. It is from this moment that the "new life of the hero" begins to form, the life of Isidore-2. And Lena Tsareva is no longer in it, the facts of childhood are distorted, the family is transformed, and with it values, guidelines, desires. Evgeny Vodolazkin allows a similar experiment during the plot layout, but it should not be excluded that something similar is possible in real life. The form of the mask, the concealment of the present, is often a phenomenon of the ordinary order, while formally people do not pay attention to it, or it happens automatically. Memory is confronted with a number of circumstances of the past, but it is not possible to verify the truth to the end. Chagin has a different case, his automatically accurate version of memorization does not erase the feeling of what he has experienced, read, learned. This is the tragedy of the hero, which will further intensify with the course of the chronological paradigm.

It is advisable in this case to comment on the theme of power in the novel, because this facet is also of interest to Evgeny Vodolazkin. Chagin's memory does not directly play the role of a controller of the balance of dependence on the administrative level, but the distortion of the understanding of reality under the influence of imperatives is fundamental. Isidor Chagin is a hero who is in constant ontological search, different periods of his fate, one way or another, are consonant with the changes in history. Even the archaic of the Ancient world play the role of a manipulator of Chagin's actions. He depends, willingly or not, on the actual events of Ancient Greece, the ancient world in general. The cultural and historical code is embedded in the hero's memory, becoming an emblem of ethical gravity. But it is worth noting that moral attitudes for Chagin are immanently deformed. It is no coincidence that the surname is etymologically connected with chaga, and this is a fungus that damages the tree, destroys it, and most importantly, destroys the base. The proportionality of reality and the inner world, desire and action, feeling and emotional impulse is violated. In this case, the inanimate becomes dominant, the true (correct) is shifted to the periphery. The law of natural nature is violated, memory is not a catalyst for action for the hero. It is no coincidence that it is noted that "the content did not play any role in memorization. The quality of memorization depended solely on the position of the memorized in space" ^{[3, p. 70]}. The actual harmony of the world is understood literally by the main character, connotation is excluded here as an effective assessment tool. As the hero plays memory, so memory plays with the hero. The situation clearly looks like an antinomy: fiction and reality differ for the reader, for Chagin they are soldered into a single link, while also very closely packed into the so-called fingering point. The turn of thought is suspended, as the residual effect interferes, much of what Chagin has already remembered is layered on top of each other, leveling the given content as such.

In the course of the artistic narrative, a certain task of deciphering the problem of memory is solved both by the author himself [Evgeny Vodolazkin] and the main character – Chagin. Perhaps we can agree that the dual variant, the doublet variant, is quite legitimate: "synesthesia is a phenomenon in which a sensation in one area of the senses gave rise to a sensation in another area <...> Memorization was carried out along several lines, where one kind of controls the other" ^{[3, p. 98]}. A literal cross-section of facts and events is remembered by Chagin with the help of images, this is quite legitimate, but "metaphors represented a difficulty for Chagin" ^{[3, p. 101]}, "poems were a disaster ... for Isidore" ^{[3, p. 101]}. Aesthetic naturalness and the typological artistic paradigm are undergoing a collapse in this case, and this is the limit of perfection for a person / reader. The hero, therefore, cannot sense the depth and potential multiplicity of language. It seems to be driven into the framework of formality, does not imply a different interpretation, a different understanding of the essence of what was said, recorded, pronounced. Isidor Chagin's diary is a "rub of his soul" ^{[3, p. 105]}, his world is so framed that the new no longer makes sense, it becomes irrelevant. The cyclic vector of cultural memory, even with its volume and sphericity, does not allow it to go beyond, it is clear that it is already conceivable and sounds like a background. Chagin cannot find oblivion, he does not have fragments of memories, only the format is full, although they are the "pieces of meat in the broth. Broth is oblivion" ^{[3, p. 116]}. E.G. Vodolazkin's metaphor is quite understandable to the reader, the vector principle blurs the boundaries, while syntagmatics reduces everything to a conditional plane.

The fragmentation of the novel into parts, in our opinion, is an attempt to reflect the stepwise principle of the dynamics of life. The first part is "Chagin's Diary", the second is "Operation Big Ben", the third is "Unforgettable", the fourth is "Summer and Evnoi". All structural components add up to a single concept of "non-violation of harmony", or maintaining its course. It is this indicator that is the main one in memory movements, it is it that regulates the important and secondary, necessary and necessary, dominant and mediocre. For Isidor Chagin, recording all events is a single data stream, but for the Meshchersky decryptor it is completely different. Meshchersky even says that "the events of his [Chagin's] life may resonate with mine... what happened to Isidore cast a tragic reflection on my life" ^{[3, p. 144]}. The vector of narrative thus shifts into a diametric mode, turns into the destruction of other destinies. In this work, we focus mainly on two parts of the novel (the first and the third), which allow us to objectify the topic of memory in this text, to give some kind of verified assessment of what memory is for the main character. In this case, the limit of the reader's version is not excluded. The reception of the course of events in the other two parts is different, it is a kind of alternative layer that affects other levels of the plot. The addition of information in these blocks is atomic, in our opinion, a literal analysis of these fragments within the article will be clearly superfluous, and the vector of analysis of the topic may significantly shift to another scientific layer. Consequently, the contours of the first and third parts of the novel are in a literal correction of the theme of memory, because the leading qualification is prescribed by the author systematically.

For Evgeny Vodolazkin, Chagin's memory is not an actual mistake, but an experiment, a kind of mutation of the usual view of things, events, facts. In this case, the metaphorical orientation of the narrative is not excluded. Actually, it sounds like a bright marker in Viktor Pelevin's novel "Cool" at the moment: "We are born from intertwined conscious strings. And when we pull them – even mentally – sooner or later a response wave comes to us" ^{[12, p. 417]}. A variant of the impulse of a different order also appears in the novel by E.G. Vodolazkin, while the equivalent is not found, even in the layout of thanatology ^[13], but effectively remains in this state. An approximately similar format of the proliferation of meanings, as well as semantic fields, as a variant of open references, for example, can be observed in Leonid Leonov ^[14] in his latest novel "Pyramid". The vector of literary experiments of the late twentieth century – early XXI century was a certain amplitude, whose array clearly weighed on the total multiplicity of values. The artistic XXI century, increasingly in the format of a new aesthetics, is consonant with a range of alternatives, a new realization of knowledge, a new combination of what has already been said, read, and recorded. Building up potentially significant boundaries becomes mandatory. They are the ones who configure the projection of the perspective of meaning. In our opinion, Yevgeny Vodolazkin's novel is no exception.

The text is aligned by semantic ^[15] fluctuations, relative harmony of positions, the implementation of dominants of the active order, genre syncretics, a variant of the transformation of the plot and figurative system. An example of this order could be observed in the novel by E. Turtleneck "Brisbane" ^[16]. These key positions were realized in this work exclusively by changing temporal and spatial boundaries, while the dominates of the plot are clearly sustained, and the integrity of the organics of the text is focused on coherence, the integrity of conceivable limits, not only in memory as such, but also in a situation, event, fact.

The stylistic ^[17] component is texturally manifested in the language of E.G. Vodolazkin. A lively and relaxed conversation with the reader is built through the use of a special format – these are diary entries. It should be noted that the novel "Chagin", despite the fractional division into parts, still has a single, multifaceted text. Starting from the headline ^[18] complex (the strong position of the text) and ending with the final phrases of the work: "Isidore worked from morning to night. He wrote a poem, presenting himself as Odysseus" ^{[3, p. 377]} the author focuses on memory, which in the case of Isidore has no boundaries. The reader understands that temporary extremes can be disrupted by immersion in the cultural and historical layer. Memory plays a special role in this case, because without it it is impossible to create, create, and move on. The main character of the novel does not become a victim of his own free will. The gift and talent for memorizing everything he sees, reads, turns into a kind of obsession. There is mental instability, loneliness, and a difficult path of socialization, and personal anxiety, etc. The effect of intensifying the tragedy was successfully spelled out by E.G. Vodolazkin almost in the finale: "Chagin's memories did not fade over time. They had the same emotional freshness as when they appeared" ^{[3, p. 310]}. Thus, memory in Evgeny Vodolazkin's novel "Chagin" is a formula of irreversibility. But the actions and deeds of the hero are in many ways a demonstration of multiplicity. Although Vodolazkin's writing style and poetics do not gravitate towards postmodernism, the influence of modern trends is clearly evident in this work. The plot of the novel, the specially folded figure of the main character, is not accidental, but also the context itself, expanding, having a multiplicity of excuses. Cultural memory is cyclically oriented, for Evgeny Vodolazkin it is also an impulse to destabilize meanings, because this is an ontological task of artistic creativity.