Poetics of Metamorphosis and “Layering” in a Story “A Small Mistake” by N.S. Leskov: Towards the Problem of the “Classical Writer’s Method”

Abstract

Based on S.S. Averintsev’s study “Poetics of Early Byzantine Literature&8j1; and on the scholarly understanding of the “poetics” phenomenon, the specificity of the image in N. S. Leskov’s story “A Small Mistake&8j1; is revealed. The poetics of metamorphosis (Ovid), iconic poetics of “layer-by-layer painting&8j1; contribute to the embodiment of form-creative intentions of the 19th century writer in the creation of such an image, which brings into synthesis the “fabulous&8j1; (everyday) and the “everyday-descriptive&8j1; (everyday life), verbal and plastic-imaginative features dating back to pagan and Christian cultures, encouraging the reader to interpret actively and understand the contradictions of the image. The article continues the study of N.S. Leskov’s poetics taking into account the aesthetic foundations of his work: the principle of deliberate archaization and modernisation; the primacy of craftsmanship rooted in tradition; the “double image&8j1;; the boundary form. The teleological goals of the analysis lie in the attempt to approach an understanding of the method of the most “misunderstood&8j1; Russian classical writer.