The Composition of the Сollection "Chistiy Dor" by Yu. I. Koval

The work examines the collection "Pure Dor" (1970) by the children's writer Yu.I. Koval. The book is considered as a single whole, where each story is assigned a certain place by the will of the author for a reason. The genre of pastoral was chosen as the prism through which it is proposed to consider the composition of the collection. It is he who, as the work shows, allows you to read the stories of the collection from beginning to end as a single narrative and, thus, understand the subtext embedded by Koval in the "Pure Dor". In addition, the prism of pastoral makes it possible to include the collection in a number of other works of the writer. It is assumed that the main driving force of the collection is the opposition of the outside world, which the narrator character becomes a sign of, and the inner world of the village of Chisty Dor. The composition of the collection turns out to be such that, according to the arrangement of the stories, the following evolution can be traced: first, the narrator is an outsider in relation to the space of the village, and after, first assuming the role of an observer, and then a student, eventually acquires the features of the logic of the Chistodorians, unites with them and becomes one of them. However, his penetration into this space hidden from the outside world entails an interchange: the world of the village brings him what he lacks, but he, as a symbol of the outside world, brings, or rather highlights with his appearance, phenomena that contradict the internal logic of the village and destroy it. The village turns out to be simultaneously suffering from contact with the outside world, but at the same time in need of it.