THE SQUARE AS SYMBOLIC SPACE IN A.S. PUSHKIN’s WRITING

Abstract

Repetition and variation of some baseline motives and images are a hallmark of A. Pushkin’s poetic system. A comprehensive system of A. Pushkin’s writing arises due to complex and contradictory relationships of specific elements. A principle of ‘resourceful contradiction’ forms the basis for the system. The square is one of the key space images which not only unites a wide range of works (from ‘Boris Godunov’ tragedy to ‘The Captain’s Daughter’ novel) but forms a recurrent plot as well. The author of the paper demonstrates the functioning of this image and elicits its semantics by means of numerous texts. The square space in Pushkin’s works is both a death site and a place of salvation; both a place of historic resolutions and a place of historic dead end. Special attention is paid to the allusive principle which is constitutive in Pushkin’s fiction system. The image of the square is inseparable from the events of December, 14, 1825 and July, 25, 1826 in a number of works (‘The Bronze Horseman’, ‘The Captain’s Daughter’ and others).