Artistic Peculiarities of Mikhail Volkov’s Collection “Tales of Antrop from Fox Hills”

Abstract

This article analyzes the Mikhail Volkov’s collection “Tales of Antrop from Fox Hills”, which was repeatedly republished in the late 1920s. It notes the characteristic trend of cyclicality in the first decade after the October Revolution: uniting novellas into books and collections. The study is based on the 1926 editions and the reprints of 1927, reflecting a change in the author’s concept: a semantic and thematic reorientation. The research aims to identify the artistic specificity of M. Volkov’s book, with tasks including understanding the functional role of the title and preface of the collection as parts of the header-final complex, characterizing the image of the fictional author-narrator, and exploring the genre features of the book. It is established, firstly, that while in the first edition, the narrator’s figure, his narrative style, and storytelling method were significant, in reprints, the narrated world becomes more important. Secondly, the fictional author-narrator, Grandpa Antrop, describes the humorous world of the village slowly changing and restructuring in the first post-revolutionary decade through a storytelling manner in a series of “tales.” Thirdly, in terms of genre, the novellas in the collection tend towards anecdote. It is shown that at the core of the paradoxically developing, comedic plot is the storyteller himself, presenting all stories as a life “fact” presented in a playful form.