The Motif of an “Underlived Life” as an Emblematic Element in the Generational Drama of the Revolutionary Era (With Reference to A. Platonov’s Life and Creative Work)
Аннотация:The article states that “unnoticeability” was just one of the modes of the revolutionary generation’s dramatic destiny of the early 20th century relating to the fate ofthe young emigration of the first wave. For the young people who remained in Russia and came to believe in the “cause of revolution”, the drama of their destiny manifested itself as an “underlived life”: the social and political situation in the country did not give the revolutionary generation an opportunity to reach an old age. The motif of an “underlived life” in all the complexity of its semantic projections was implemented in the work of A. Platonov. The statement is illustrated with reference to works of various genres: a novel (Happy Moscow), a play (Voice of the Father, A Student of the Lyceum), a short story (In Search of the Perished), and Platonov’s letters. The variety of genres increases the validity of the researcher’s position. The analysis of The Unnoticed Generation by V. Varshavsky and some correlations with the life and work of B. Poplavsky enables the author to conclude that the two vectors of the Revolutionary generation’s fate — the émigré (just barely marked by the author) and the Russian internal one — formed a single generational plot with the situation of under-realized / interrupted life in its centre.
