Forms of Narration in Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s Miniatures as the Author’s Way to Evaluate Soviet Reality

Abstract

Referring to Solzhenitsyn’s first early cycle Miniatures (Rus. Krokhotki ) (1958–1960), the article attempts to trace the author’s attitude toward Soviet reality wherein Min iatures were created. The peculiarity of the texts studied is that Solzhenitsyn, a Soviet man, a “product” of the Soviet era, demonstrates a critical attitude towards homo soveticus . This paradox is also realised by the author himself, who considers himself a part of the collective we , on whose behalf the narrative is given, but then, on the contrary, positions himself as I — a subject looking at Soviet reality from the outside. Accordingly, depending on the situation, Miniatures vary the forms of narration. In each case, the dominant form of the narrative can be identified by subject thematic chains, which are represented in the Miniatures mainly by pronominal and zero nominations. As shown by frequency analysis, there is no dependence of the number of nominations on the volume of text: the thematic chains appear in the text in the number of nominations that the author needs to express himself as contrasted or connected with the depicted reality. It is on the basis of nominations-substitutes (pronouns) that the we -form predominates in Miniatures , which is inevitably explained by the inclusion of the narrator in the number of homo soveticus . The article demonstrates that the form of I -narration is often associated with the natural environment, with the age-old, millennial, and eternal which the Soviet era tried to break. The author’s undoubtedly critical attitude to these attempts is observed in each Miniature separately through event signs, signs-rituals, and real signs.