UDC

821.161.1

Authors

Tomilova Nadezda Anatolyevna
Institute for Humanities, Moscow City Teacher Training University (Moscow, Russia)

Abstract

This paper analyzes A. Ilichevsky’s novel Matisse, which narrates about one of the most important historical events of the late 20th century – the collapse of the Soviet Union. The author of the article focuses on the fate of the characters who survived the time of this historical change, in particular on the moral choice of the novel’s protagonist, dictated by this traumatic time. Leonid Korolev – the protagonist – is looking for answers to the eternal questions of life, thinking about the fate of the survivors of this tragic historical event. This paper turns to the issue of personal identity of Ilichevsky’s character. Having gone through the different social niches in the city of the 1990s, Leonid Korolev eventually turns to the natural world: he, literally and figuratively speaking, cuts his social ties and becomes a wanderer. His fate fits into the matrix of a wanderer, a traveller. He makes his journey to comprehend the higher meaning of life, to improve himself. The key to the novel is its name – Matisse – which for Ilichevsky symbolizes the advantage of the natural world over civilization, due to the close, as if through a magnifying glass, attention the Fauvist artist pays to the details of the landscape. This way, through a traumatic experience Leonid Korolev comes to aesthetic and perceptional understanding of the world, in which, according to Ilichevsky, where there’re less people, there’s more God. From that on, the protagonist is guided not by the conventional social norms but by the principles established by God.

Keywords

A. Ilichevsky, contemporary literature, collapse of the USSR, escapism, identity, evolution

References

1. Litkritik. Vnimatel’noe chtenie sovremennoy literatury: A. Ilichevskiy. Matiss [Careful Reading of Contemporary Literature: A. Ilichevsky. Matisse]. Available at: http://litkritik.livejournal.com/555.html (accessed 12 November 2014).
   
2. Shafranskaya E.F. Roman Aleksandra Ilichevskogo “Matiss” [Alexander Ilichevsky’s Novel Matisse]. Russkaya slovesnost’, 2008, no. 4, pp. 37–40.
   
3. Posle Tolstogo stydno pisat’ slabee [After Tolstoy It’s a Shame to Write Weaker]. Available at: http://www.kstatie. com›…posle-tolstogo-stydno-pisat’-slabee/ (accessed 12 November 2014).
   
4. Danilkin L. Ploshchad’ Ilichevskogo [Ilichevsky Square]. Available at: http://www.club366.ru/articles/ilichevskii. shtml (accessed 12 November 2014).
   
5. Alexander Ilichevsky Won the Literary Prize “Russian Booker” – 2007. Available at: http://www.domaschnieremesla. ru/dr/newremesla1315.html (accessed 12 November 2014) (in Russian).