The poetics of space in the short stories cycle “The Lonely Windmills” by S. Stratiev

Abstract

This article aims at analysis of spatial structures in the short stories cycle by the Bulgarian writer “The Lonely Windmills” (1969) and they role in the interpretation of the deformation of a human personality and of the loss of moral guidance. The delimitation of the chronotopes is made through taking into account the viewpoints of the narrator (the idealized past in the oppostion to the present) and the dwellers of his native street (a world contingently closed in itself and with certain traits of a fairytale chronotope. It is contrasted with the unlimited outside space). When creating the different types of spaces, the author actively uses such spatial and binary oppositions as up / down, close / distant, open / closed, big / small. A special role in the marking of one’s own / other worlds is played be the colour. The space of the past with the mythologeme of home in its centre is characterized through bright colours. They however are disappearing while the main character is growing. The home playing a structurizing role in the cycle, is a guarantee to preserve the individuality of a human. Once it is lost, the personality is deformed. Taking part in the modelling of the art world of Stratiev, the spatial structures and the motifs of home and memory about it incarnate the author’s ideas on the destruction of a personality due to oblivion, the loss of homeland, and under the influence of social institutions.