Information about the author:
Maria V. Mikhailova
Maria V. Mikhailova, DSc in Philology, Honored Professor, 1) Professor of the Department of the History of Modern Russian Literature and Modern Literary Process of Philological Faculty, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Leninskie gory 1/51, 119991 Moscow, Russia; Leading Research Fellow, 2) A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya 25 a, 121069 Moscow, Russia.
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8193-6588
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Abstract:
The article examines I.S. Shmelyov’s story “Citizen Ukleykin”, which has been insufficiently studied so far. Generally speaking, the story is not written in the author’s literary style that was established by 1908. Nevertheless, the study of the work in the context of the development of Russian literature in the 1900s shows that Shmelyov revealed the trends expanding the possibilities of realism, not only in respect of lyrical and religious innovation (this would become typical for the writer in the 1910s), but also in terms of the extension of phenomena, the symbolization of images, and the tendency towards grotesque and fantastical representation of events. However, unlike some researchers addressing the related issues nowadays, M.V. Mikhailova is not inclined to consider the connection between the story’s social layer (specific political situation associated with the election of the First State Duma and freedom of speech) and ontological subject matter (the birth of self-esteem in a person degenerated into an animal) to be a sign of neorealism. The “existential” and the “everyday” in this work of Shmelyov have not yet been fused. This would happen later. This argument is presented in the final part of the article.
Keywords: I.S. Shmelyov, “Citizen Ukleykin”, Freedom of Speech, Homo Politicus, Citizen, Origins of Neorealism.
