ЖЕСТ ПАЛАЧА ИЛИ ТЕЛО КЛЕЙМЕННОЕ ИСТОРИЕЙ (ПРЕДЕЛ ЗАБВЕНИЯ СЕРГЕЯ ЛЕБЕДЕВА)
THE EXECUTIONER’S GESTURE, I.E. BODY MARKED BY THE HISTORY (OBLIVION BY SERGEI LEBEDEV)

Summary/Abstract: The novel Oblivion (2010) by Sergei Lebedev (born in 1981) — the subject of our analysis — is one of the first literary examples of a new trend in a Russian memorial discourse, so far focused solely on commemorating the victims of the Stalinist regime and ignoring the figures of executioners in a complete silence. By breaking the social and cultural taboos, the writer creates a hero — a former torturer of the regime whose criminal nature is revealed through the practices of a bodily memory. The purpose of this article is to semantically analyse the executioner’s body language (i.e., gestures, facial expressions, eyesight, silence). Lebedev’s concentration on bodily and physiological aspects makes it possible to unmask a carefully hidden biography of the torturer.

• Details
• Contents