Problems and Spiritual Meaning of Mikhail Elizarov’s Story “The Money-Changer”
https://doi.org/10.18384/2949-5008-2024-1-106-113
Abstract
Aim. To interpret the final story of M. Elizarov “We Went out to Smoke for 17 years”, which reflected the tragic moral metamorphosis of a whole generation whose youth fell on the period of the breakdown of the era and former values.
Methodology. Phenomenological and comparative approaches are taken as a research basis. Taking into account the opinions of literary critics about the specifics of Elizarov’s work, the artistic logic of the story “The Money-Changer” is sequentially analyzed and its content is compared with the important ethical theses of Elizarov’s essay on Arkady Gaidar, written almost simultaneously.
Results. The artistic truth of the story confirms the complexity of the author’s attitude to the desecrated Soviet Atlantis, its spiritual and moral strength and impact on the individual. The young protagonist of “The Money-Changer”, brought up on the Soviet-Gaidar cultural code, undergoes a crisis of faith in the depth of human relations due to cruel violence against himself. He is forced to abandon Soviet artistry and the code of honor in personal behavior. After 17 years, the former naive romantic emerges victorious from a similar situation. However, the ending of the story suggests that the narrator-author acknowledges in himself a certain spiritual defeat, exchange, concession to evil, the means of overcoming which he is still looking for.
Research implications. The article states the incompleteness of the spiritual and moral searches of Mikhail Elizarov, introduces new touches to the motive of substitution, little studied in the works by this author.
About the Author
S. V. Krylova
Federal State University of Education
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Snezhana V. Krylova – Cand. Sci. (Philological Sciences), Assoc. Prof., Assoc. Prof., Department of Russian and Foreign Literature
ul. Very Voloshinoi 24, Moscow Region, Mytishchi 141014
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