SHORT STORY «THE SEEKER OF THE LOST» BY A. PLATONOV: SPIRITUAL AND AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL CONTEXTS

• Main Author: Elena Nikolaevna Proskurina
• Format: Article
• Language: Russian
• Published: Ural State Pedagogical University 2016-03-01
• Series: Филологический класс
• Subjects: wartime prose by a. platonov, short story «the seeker of the lost», letters by platonov, historical memory, christian tradition in literature
• Online Access: https://filclass.ru/en/archive/2016/44/short-story-the-seeker-of-the-lost-by-a-platonov-spiritual-and-autobiographical-contexts

The subject of the article is the Christian tradition in the works by Platonov. The purpose is to demonstrate the continuity of the author's attitude to Orthodoxy despite his god-fighting frame of mind particularly active in the early period of the author's work. While for the early and 1930-s periods this issue can be analyzed through attraction-repulsion, Platonov’s work of the wartime period reveals his kinship to the fathers’ tradition not only on the genre memory level but also as the author’s active emotional experience. The article examines a short story «The Seeker of the Lost» by A Platonov within the spiritual and autobiographical contexts. On the basis of the inter-textual and motif analysis the article demonstrates the textual intersections between the short story and Platonov’s letters of the wartime period. The conceptual point is stated that the creation of the short story was connected with Platonov’s intention to write a «tale about a son» backgrounded by the early death of his son Platon. The intensification of the Christian dominant in Platonov’s wartime prose is shown. It is concluded that in the poetics of the short story «The Seeker of the Lost» the New Testament layer gains an unprecedented intenseness. The results of the investigation can be used during the study of the works by A. Platonov in high school or in the course of literature of the XX century for university students.