CZAS FABUŁY I RZECZYWISTOŚCI PRZEDSTAWIONEJ W "BORSUKACH" LEONIDA LEONOWA
THE TEMPORAL ASPECTS OF REALITY IN 'BARSUKI' (BADGERS) BY LEONID LEONOV

Summary/Abstract: The theme of the first of L. Leonov’s novels ‘Barsuki’ (1924), whilst preserving the traditional sequence in its development of events, is based on the principal of the episode novel, and thus testifies to the adherence of the debutant writer to the artistic principles of Dostoyevsky. In connection with this, the reality presented in the novel consists of a series of interrupted scenes and episodes with a great many intervals of ‘empty’ time, differingin length, directed towards the arousal of the reader’s conscience. A second temporal structure is apperent in the work through its particular characteristics. This structure is produced by four introducing novels, which, by their attitude to the theme of ‘Barsuki’ as a commentary on the events of 1917 develop the action in reverse until the time of Peter I. Leonov’s chosen scheme — the space time construction of a novel in which the 1917 Revolution is comprehended as a consequence of the reformative action of Peter I — indicates the lines in ideas of the general concept of ‘Barsuki’ with the historical novels of Russian symbolists.

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