SASHA PYLNIKOV AND PEREDONOV: THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF ENVY AS A SOURCE OF “PETTY DEMON” (“MELKIY BES”) IN PROJECTION ON THE AUTOINTERTEXT OF F. SOLOGUB

Abstract

The novel “The Petty Demon” (“Melkiy bes”) by Fyodor Sologub is a work of Russian literature of the Silver Age, explaining Fyodor Sologub’s understanding of the Russian character and the main problems of Russian society. The text of “The Petty Demon” enters into an intertextual dialogue with many classic works of Russian and foreign literature, as well as with mythology. In addition to the sources indicated, the text contains a dialogue of the author with himself – autointertext. The novel is closely connected with F. Sologub’s article “Envy” (“Zavist”), written a year earlier, and is in fact an expanded artistic interpretation of the reasoning in “Envy” about the essence of the Russian character and overcoming its negative traits. The key plot line of the novel is the confrontation between the student Sasha Pylnikov and the teacher Peredonov. The key to understanding this motif is the episode of the masquerade: Sasha puts on a geisha costume, symbolizing, according to Sologub, everything that a Russian person is envious of. This study shows how, through the description of the masquerade, the author leads the reader to interpret the meaning of the novel by turning to autointertext.