Попытка оживить прошлое. Метароман Алексея Макушинского „Город в долине”
An Attempt to Revive the Past: The Meta-Novel „Town in Valley” by Alexei Makushinsky

Summary/Abstract: This article explores the relationship between the past and the present in the meta-novel Town in Valley, written by Alexei Makushinsky, the Russian emigre author. The discussion focuses on the protagonist who makes an unsuccessful attempt to write a novel about the Russian Civil War. The aim of the article is to uncover the reasons and key aspects of the creative failure depicted by Makushinsky, addressing oppositions such as past vs. present, personal vs. historical, and memory vs. imagination. It also delves into the interactions between an author and a text, and ultimately, fiction and history. The main conclusions are that Town in Valley demonstrates the futility of using literary texts as tools to resurrect the past, and that fiction cannot replace memory or transform historical events into personal experiences. Artistic and historical elements can complement each other, but a complete synthesis is evidently impossible.

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