SIBERIAN SPACE IN THE S. TESSON AND VIRGILE DUREUIL’S GRAPHIC NOVEL “IN THE FORESTS OF SIBERIA”

Abstract

The article explores the specificity of the representation of Siberian space in the untranslated graphic novel written by French authors Sylvain Tesson and Virgile Dureuil “In the forests of Siberia” (Dans les forêts de Sibérie, 2019). The aim of the article is to study adaptation transformations of the spatial poetics of the S. Tesson’s original novel, written in 2011, from text into a visual narrative. Historical-cultural, intermedial and comparative research methods were used in order to identify the specific characteristics of the original and graphic texts and to compare them. Through analysing the genre features of the selected graphic novel, the motif complex, and the character system, significant differences between the original novel and its adaptations in the representation of Siberian space are identified. Special attention was paid to the autofictional character of Sylvain Tesson. In contrast to the 2011 novel, where the character undergoes an initiation rite by entering a space of cold and loneliness, in the graphic novel Sylvain Tesson’s autofictional character finds inner harmony in a magical lake region, which is comparable to the space of paradise with which he associates Siberia.