An Intelligent Game by Puškin: Plot Structure and the Thematic Unity of The Tales of Belkin

Abstract

The main body of my arguments demonstrates in which artistic principles and literary framework Pushkin's texts are interwoven with each other. This study explores why the cycle must be called a fine literary model, experimental norm, and projection of a completely new style at the time. Through this synthetic interpretation of the cycle, I finally suggest that Pushkin's The Tales of Belkin paves a completely new path to the development of the Russian short story with a special emphasis on thematic unity. In this internally planned plot formation, events from Pushkin's biography, especially his immature youthful pranks and wishful hope to have a happy marriage, are also considered. Speaking of the embedded text penetrating throughout the cycle, I maintain that traditional Russian wedding rituals are certainly the most recurrent folkloric motif. Structurally analyzing each tale, I have in mind this dominant motif as to how it contributes to encoding the writer's artistic design within the texts and how it creatively formulates a unifying thematic structure for the cycle.