A.P. Chudakov's Novel-Idyll "The Darkness Lays on Steps, Such Old and Low": a Commentary

Student: Morozova Kseniia

Faculty: Faculty of Humanities (Nizhny Novgorod)

Educational Programme: Philology (Bachelor)

Year of Graduation: 2019

The present work is conceived as a part of the ‘total’ commentary to Alexander Chudakov’s (1938 – 2005) novel-idyll A Gloom Is Cast Upon the Ancient Steps (1987, 1997 – 2001). The paper focuses on three aspects of the poetic of the novel which determines the complexity of this text for readers' perception: the interaction with world literature tradition (on the example of revealing allusions to Victor Hugo’s novel The Man Who Laughs (1869)), the connection with Chudakov’s literary criticism (on the example of revealing references to the biography of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov: the Book for Students), as well as narration’s ‘superdensity’ (on the example of the first chapter).

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