The images of foreigners in I. S. Shmelyov’s stories of the earlier period in the context of the theme of childhood

Abstract

The subject of this research is the images of foreigners in I. S. Shmelyov’s stories of the earlier period “On the Seashore” and "Hassan and His Jeddi". The stories mark a neo-realistic period in the writer’s creative path, oriented towards depicting the social and everyday realities contemporary to the writer. The goal of this article lies in classification of the characters in the context of the theme of childhood. The belonging of the Turk Hassan and the Greek Dimitraki to a different ethnic and confessional culture, on the one hand allows conducting stylistic experiments to create a speech portrait of the Russian-speaking foreigner, while on the other hand figuratively indicates the diversity and unity of the universe. The novelty of this research consists in referring to the previously undeciphered and unpublished draft materials of the stories. The relevance of the selected topic is substantiated by the need for a more in-depth analysis of I. S. Shmelyov’s works of the earlier period, as namely them lay the foundation for the artistic philosophy and development of his writing style. Based on the comparative method and textual analysis, the article reveals the similar features of the foreign characters, which testifies to the fact that Shmelyov sought for the particular traits. The connection of foreign characters with the world of childhood (blood relationship or spiritual closeness with the child-character, retained childishness of perception of the world) resembles in their images the features of the chactachers of a righteous man and mentor, which were most fully described in Shmelyov’s works of the mature period.