The art space in Eugene Vodolazkin’s novel Brisbane: The imagological aspect

Abstract

The article considers the spatial opposition in the novel Brisbane by Eugene Vodolazkin. The spatial opposition “Russia - other countries” for the character first appears in Leningrad, when he studies at university. This opposition is at first somewhat illusory in its nature. The “Russia - Germany” opposition is an invariant of the “Russia - other countries” spatial opposition and also appears in the story during Gleb’s studies at university. The so-called “German” for Gleb is primarily associated with Katarina, later Katya - the name she took out of respect for the Russian roots of Gleb, as well as with the echoes of World War II, which sound muted, sometimes conciliatory. The “German” in the novel is also embodied in cultural onomasticon. The spatial opposition “Russia - Italy” occupies a somewhat more modest place than the opposition “Russia - Germany” in the plot, but it is significant for the national and civil self-determination of the character. Contemporary Italy appears in the novel closer to its end and is associated with the second storyline - the plane of the present. The comparison of Russia and Italy takes place symbolically, on the border of eternity, in timeless space. The “Italian” in the novel is also associated with the world of music. Finally, another spatial opposition, “Russia - Ukraine,” plays an important role in both the plot and the description of the main character of the novel, and organically combines the two national identities, without separating them, as well as the cultural and historical space of Russia and Ukraine. The article also analyzes the oppositions “Kyiv -Petersburg” and “Kyiv - Moscow.” A detailed topography in the novel appears when describing a non-alien space. The motifs of topophobia and to-pophilia when mastering someone else’s space are distinguished. The art world of the novel also includes images of a liminal space. These are train stations and airports, a kind of a gate of the city (or country), the state border, the Berlin Wall. In Slavic mythology, there is another, invisible ontological boundary - between this-being and that-being, the visible symbols of which are the church and the cemetery, separating the world of the living from the kingdom of the dead. These loci are also presented in the novel. In a sense, Brisbane is also a liminal space, since Australia in ordinary consciousness is often perceived as the edge of the world. Brisbane is a metaphor for a little paradise, heaven on Earth, an unattainable dream desired by Arcadia. Brisbane is a metaspace characteristic of neomodernism, which connects all the plot nodes of the novel. The author declares no conflicts of interests.