METAPHYSICS OF DEATH VS PHYSIOLOGY OF LIFE: ABOUT IDEA AND ARTISTICAL CHARACTERISTICS NOVEL OF M. ELIZAROV “EARTH”

Abstract

The article examines a question of what constitutes the substantive dominant of M. Elizarov’s novel “Earth”: the metaphysics of death, since the publishing house declared the novel as “the first large-scale comprehension of Russian Thanatos”, or the physiology of life, based on the signs of a naturalistic narrative system in the novel. Attention is drawn to the place of the novel in the author’s creative biography. Results of a comparative analysis of the novel by M. Elizarov and the novel of the same name by E. Zola are presented. The question is raised about the genre specificity of the work, which lies in the synthesis of features of the upbringing novel, industrial and philosophical novels. Particular attention is paid to the semantics of the title of Elizarov’s work, its polysemy is proved: in the author’s system of meanings of the novel, the concept of “earth”, on the one hand, personifies Russia, on the other, understanding the earth as foremother brings the reader closer to understanding it as a concept that has no cultural specifics. The novelty of the work is seen in the chosen of research racurse: the analysis of the originality of the combination in the narrative manner of the author of the aesthetics of naturalism with the rhetoric of philosophical discourse. The relevance of the study is due to the need for scientific understanding of the idea and artistic characteristics of a novel that has entered the mainstream of modern Russian prose.