ALEXEY TURBIN ‘S INITIATION PLOT IN THE WHITE GUARD NOVEL BY M.A. BULGAKOV

Abstract

Background. The problem of the functioning of archetypal plots and related images and motifs in the artistic structure of the novel The White Guard by Mikhail Bulgakov remains practically unexplored in literary criticism. This also applies to the episode of the meeting between Alexei Turbin and Julia Reiss, in which the logic of the initiation plot is revealed, implemented in the text through a system of folklore-fairytale and mythological references that require detailed analysis and interpretation.
 Purpose. The purpose of the article is to study the figurative and semantic paradigm of the initiation plot in the history of the acquaintance of Alexey Turbin and Julia Reiss.
 Materials and methods. The material of the study is the episodes presented in Chapters 10–13 of the novel. At the same time, the analyzed fragments are considered taking into account the artistic and semantic contexts of the work as a whole. In the process of research, mythopoetic, structural-comparative, systemic-functional methods of text analysis were used.
 Results. The results of the study showed that in the analyzed fragments of the novel detected parallels with the system of fairy tale motifs associated with the archetype of initiation. In the narrative logic of the episode, the main stages of this plot are highlighted: departure // isolation of the hero; trials and temptations; symbolic death; resurrection and transformation. A similar parallelism is revealed in the structure of the chronotope: Turbin, like fairy-tale end mythological heroes, undergoes initiation in a symbolic other world, where he moves from the real-empirical space. Pivotal to the logic of the development of events is the fabulous motive of flight with a number of transformations of the hero and his “miraculous” escape from persecution with the help of Julia Reiss. Turbin repeatedly experiences “meetings with death” as the culminating stages of initiation, in the finale of the plot collision there is a revival and the return of the hero to the real world.
 Practical implications. The results of the study can be used in the courses of studying Russian literature at the university and school.