“THE SUN OF THE DEAD” BY I.S. SHMELEV: SPATIAL SYMBOLS OF THE PICTURE OF BEING

Abstract

The article analyzes the key spatial images of the story by I.S. Shmelev "The Sun of the Dead." Their role in describing a specific landscape and expression of the author's worldview is indicated. Shmelev gives volume and ambiguity to the landscape, which appears in the story not only as a topos, a plot element, but also an image of cultural, psychological, religious intentions. The conclusion is drawn about the realism and mythologization of nature paintings, their symbolic meanings are decoded, structuring the vertical and horizontal space of the text and expressing the sensory, behavioral modalities of the characters. A connection is established between the artistic, spiritual space of man and the physical-geographical one. It is traced how through the ontologization of the images of nature Shmelev expresses his view on the Crimean realities of the early 1920s. The Old Testament and New Testament allusions in the image of the landscape are described, their role in translating the narrative of modern events into the plane of biblical history is determined. It has been suggested that the text deliberately introduces allusions to famous stories about Lot, persecutions of Christians, Egyptian executions, apocalyptic prophecies, symbols of the Lord, motives of His anger, apostolic judgments and others. Through images of space Shmelev combines existential motifs of the story and eschatological, mortal and life-affirming. The main compositional principle of the image of space is opposition. The works of I. Babel, I. Knorring, N. Turoverova, M. Tsvetaeva, A. Shiryaevets are attracted.