Reception of the novel “What is to be Done?” by N. G. Chernyshevsky: “new people” in the Soviet dramaturgy of the 1920s – 1930s

Abstract

The goal of this research is to reveal the peculiarities of reception of the novel “What is to be Done?” by N. G. Chernyshevsky in the Soviet dramaturgy of the 1920s – 1930s. These texts fully reflect the concept of state order, the pursuance of “socialist realist” normatization, and thus, most vividly demonstrate the specificity of functionality of the fundamental mythological concepts in semantic field of the Soviet literature. Particular attention is given to the plays by V. N. Bill-Belocerkovskij and A. Glebov. The article also employs the works of A. Neverov, V. Vishnevsky, A. Afinogenov, who largely determined the dramaturgical image of their time. The work is conducted within the framework of the mythopoetic approach, using structural-semiotic and intertextual methods. The relevance is substantiated by the need for a more comprehensive examination of the literary discourse of the 1920s – 1930s. The scientific novelty consists in attraction of an array of little studied texts of the “official” Soviet dramaturgy for identification of the cultural and literary sources of the image of “new people”, which determined the functionality of this mythologem in the literary discourse of the 1920s – 1930s. The conducted research demonstrated that in the period of post-revolutionary culture, the novel “What is to be Done?” by N. G. Chernyshevsky acquires the status of a sacred text, becomes the focus of intertextual overlap of dramaturgical texts, as well as one of the foundations for the formation of the Communist myth of the “new people” common to literature of that time. The works of the official Soviet playwrights are characterized by the declaration of continuity with regards to the novel, which in their works is demonstrated on the level of plot, themes, ideas, particular images, and separated details.