The Motif of the Last Term in the Short Story of V. Rasputin A Bear Skin for Sale

Abstract

The article analyzes the origins of the last term motif in V. Rasputin’s prose. An early short story by V. Rasputin Bearskin for Sale (1967) examines this motif from the standpoint of Christian Orthodox axiology. The analysis uses the first two editions of the short story: 1966 and 1967. The motif of the last term determines the plot of the work and reveals biblical and evangelical reminiscences that connect the story with the traditional image of the world in Russian culture, where the leading ideas are human repentance and salvation of the soul. A. N. Uzhankov’s research, which reveals the patterns of development in ancient Russian literature, explains the presence of the idea of “last times” in the minds of the ancient Russian chroniclers. V. Raspustin’s prose restores the continuity of post-1917 Russian literature with the origins of Russian literature. The story of the hunter Vasily in Bearskin for Sale reveals the psychology of human renewal, the emergence of a new attitude towards time, life, oneself and the animate in nature. Cyclic, repeated and expected time, in which a person was previously included, is replaced for him by that which is discrete, interrupted, expressed in the feeling of every moment of life as the last. A person who is ripped by sin out of harmonious coexistence with the world becomes different through an inner admission of his guilt. The motif of the last term, characteristic of the main works of V. Rasputin, the stories Money for Maria, The Last Term, Live and Remember, Farewell to Matyora is revealed from the very beginning of his literary path.