Bunin and Berberova: The Plot of Returning to the Homeland (To the Problem of the Dialogue between the Classics and the Young Writers)

About the author:

Marina A. Khatyamova, DSc in Philology, Professor, National Research Tomsk State University, Lenin Avenue, 36, 654050 Tomsk, Russia.

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4373-4461 

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Abstract:

The paper analyzes Berberova’s complex attitude to Bunin based on the autobiography “My Italics” and the story “Rocanval: a Chronicle of a Castle” (1936), which refers to the “Non-Urgent Spring” by the plot of a return to the past and the narrative creation; it is noted that in the story “The Late Hour” (1938) an opposite influence is also found — Bunin’s textual dialogue with Berberova’s the “Biyankur Manuscript” (1930): the topos of Berberova’s “late hour”, a lonely journey to the city of childhood, placed in Bunin’s story in a strong position, exposes the polemical intention of the author, who seeks to be heard by the young authors. However, the semantics of the ‘return’ plot in the works of the writers of different generations and aesthetic approaches varies: Bunin adheres to poetic semantics, asserting the triumph of creative Memory, while Berberova – to the dystopian, eliminating the central emigrant myth. The textual dialogue between Bunin and Berberova testifies to the classic’s interest in the prose of an aspiring writer and, more broadly, in the work of young expatriate authors.