The Dystopian Model of the World in the Novel Minus 273 Degrees Celsius by Anatoly Kurchatkin

Abstract

The article presents an attempt to examine the novel Minus 273 Degrees Celsius by Anatoly Kurchatkin. The novel belongs to the genre of dystopian fiction, thus a number of features characteristic of the dystopian archplot can be found in the novel. The writer quite clearly states his principle: the another world image is significant for him as a metaphor of reality in the first place. The article focuses on the dystopian model of the world depicted in the novel. While presenting the social environment and the relationships between the authorities and the citizens, the writer follows the traditions established by his predecessors which expose the system’s urge for the people’s slavish devotion incited by fear and admiration. In contrast to some dystopias, in which personal environment is considered as the only value and can guarantee a person’s inner freedom, the writer withdraws such salvatory function from the personal inner space so it has to adapt to the environment imposed by the outer world. The main character, as opposed to other characters of some popular well-known dystopias, does take a back seat, he is driven by circumstances, and his joining to a group of rioters at the end of the novel cannot be considered as his deliberate search for struggle. The article mainly analyses the writer’s position at the end of the novel. Opposite to the opinion of some critics, the writer does not give his main character a chance to find salvation and to break the deadlock. In an attempt to break through that sterile system the main hero joins the resistance movement, but apparently he gets out of one moral prison in order to get into another one. The question of finding freedom remains open in the novel, and the answer to it cannot be found in the domain of fighting of the outer forces but in the transformation of a person’s conscience.