Narrative Structure of Evgeny Baratynsky’s Tale “Persten” (the Ring) in the Context of the Evolution of Russian Tale within 1820s - 1840s

NRU Higher School of Economics , 2016. No. WP BRP 18/LS/2016.

Bodrova A. S.

The study is focused on narrative specific of Baratynsky’s “unexplained” tale “Persten” (The Ring) in comparison to, on the one hand, the material assembled within the frameworks of HSE project Russkaja Povest 1825–1850, and, on the other, taking into consideration the material of previous period (the first third of the 19th century). Using the research facilities provided by poetics of expressiveness the author describes and defines the functions of different techniques concerning the plot, composition and narrative. The author demonstrates how Baratynsky combines the widespread plots (‘magic ring’, ‘devil in love’, ‘adultery’, etc.) in a very complicated narrative model that diminishes the power of every plotline and deceives readers’ expectations. Using the database of most frequent plots (“Russian Tale, 1825-1850”, 800 texts), the paper compares “Persten” with typical and very rare plot schemes and demonstrates that Baratynsky’s tale manifests the marginal line of Russian fiction which mainstream came to choose another direction.

Keywords: Баратынский, Е.А., сюжетосложение, Baratynsky E.A., Narrative structure, poetics of genre, Russian prose of 1820-1830, русская повесть первой половины XIX в., эволюция жанра

Publication based on the results of: Русская повесть 1825-1850: электронная библиография и указатель сюжетов (2016)