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Abstract:

The paper is devoted to the functioning of the “Rudelian myth” in “The Story of a Barber Doll” by A.V. Chayanov (1918), which is realized through the transformed motives of “love for the doll” / “revitalization of the statue”. A journey in search of the “ideal sweetheart” in its classic legendary version is associated with the death of the protagonist, “distant love” is unattainable in principle. Vladimir M., falling in love with a doll in which he sees the embodiment of “perfect / final feminine”, takes a long journey, finds the girl who served as the model, one of the Siamese twins, they become lovers. The scenario of “ideal love” is ruined. The main conflict of the story relates to the tradition of the Gothic novel: seeking for inaccessible experience by mortal human being provides providence retribution. The story is a multivariate play with myths and literary traditions. As a result of the study, the author concludes: the well-known thesis of O. Freidenberg that “the idea of a doll is parallel with the idea of a deity-actor-corpse” is manifested in its classical triple unity in the neo-Gothic / decadent version: the world is a diabolical theater in which roles and masks alternate according to the law of perpetual iteration. The ideal love cannot be realized because deity turns into demon.