Художні засоби німого кіно у психологічному екшені І. Дніпровського «Заради неї»

Abstract

In the present paper a short story written by I. Dniprovsky's is analyzed. In accordance with the action canon, the main character has to find his beloved in the shortest possible time so that they could catch the train and escape from the enemy. In the twists and turns of the story the archetypal plot of lovers’ escape / rescue from the monster can be traced. It descends from folk tales and legends where a young man sacrifices himself for the sake of his beloved. By analogy with receptions in tense feature films (thrillers, horror films, catastrophes), the single-line plot «For Her sake» consists of annoyingly insidious concourse of circumstances. They create the feeling as if the whole world, even the closest people and character’s personal belongings, want to thwart his rescue. It is emphasized that, similar to the techniques in the action movies, a linear storyline in the short story consists of the treacherously irritating coincidences. However, while an action-adventure meta-genre normally has a happy ending, in the present short story the ending is more appropriate for a novella: the Bolsheviks shoot the hero as a deserter. It is established that the defining feature of the story is the lack of description of the characters’ appearances and their speech is reduced to minimum, which was a general feature of silent film scripts. A tense atmosphere of anxiety and fear is created through the acoustic and visual micro-images with the semantics of panic and horror. The gloomy urban landscapes, the hostility of the world and the sense of the fatal doom of the heroes refer to the German expressionist cinema of the early XX century. It is revealed that the story never mentions the struggle of ideologies or the enemy who seeks to seize Petro's native land. The enemy appears as an invisible and terrifying force, an element that creates chaos and makes it difficult to maintain human dignity. The key to understanding of this on border crazy motivation of the main character is the archetypal theory of C. G. Jung. In the story of I. Dniprovsky, a brave soldier (Persona Petra) in attempt to save himself together with Hanka (Anima), subconsciously seeks to save his Self-Identity. Moreover, a Wise Old Man (Hanka's father) and a Big Mother with a Child are present in the story as well. However, none of them is helpful to Petro and does not encourage the latter to make any attempts for escape. According to the artistic concept of the short story, when escaping from death, a person experiences tremendous stress, which breaks his psyche, so in a borderline situation collective experience fails, everyone tries to save himself. It is emphasized that the story's ending is unexpected: the hero finds himself in the city again, however, he is now in the status of unidentified enemy, whom he tried to escape and now he dies at the hands of the redhead leader.