Some features in the representation of the regional identity of the characters in the novel “The Vershalin Paradise” and the novella “Danuta” by A. N. Karpyuk

Abstract

In the borderland region, conditions arise for the formation of a special type of worldview. It is expressed in the emergence of a distinctive regional identity. For the work of the Belarusian writer A. N. Karpyuk characteristic is the understanding of the specifics of regional perception and its subsequent upgrade to the national level. The texts of the works are analyzed using the main structural categories of the spatial myth: Freedom of movement, social mobility, the logic of perception of the landscape by the characters. According to the plot of both works, in a situation of repeated changes of state affiliation, the formation of a local and, later, a national intelligentsia takes place: Teachers, and Priests. The balance of the national and the regional is largely determined by the specifics of relying on historical tradition and modernity. Probably due to ideological reasons, these plots are described by the author in different ways. However, the structural similarity of the two stories allows us to analyze the space surrounding the characters through the frontier myth, the peculiarities of its expression and perception.

Received: 27.01.2023.

Citation
Lamm M. A. Some features in the representation of the regional identity of the characters in the novel “The Vershalin Paradise” and the novella “Danuta” by A. N. Karpyuk // Slavic Almanac. 2023. No 1–2. P. 303–313 (in Russian). DOI: 10.31168/2073-5731.2023.1-2.3.04