The narrative structure of Yu. P. Kazakov's short story "Arcturus the Hound Dog"

Pyhtina Irina Yur'evna Student, Department of Russian and Foreign Literature, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia 6 Miklukho-Maklaya str., Moscow, 117198, Russia miss.irina.pihtina@yandex.ru

Bubnova Natal'ya Aleksandrovna ORCID: 0000-0002-8293-1399 PhD in Philology Senior Lecturer, Department of General and Russian Linguistics, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia 6 Miklukho-Maklaya str., Moscow, 117198, Russia bubnova_na@pfur.ru

Introduction

The work of Yuri Kazakov was defined in the literary process of the XX century somewhat separately. While in the 50s and 60s of the last century literature went under the banner of socialist realism with an ideal hero and "correct" plots, Yuri Pavlovich defended the right to life of lyrical literature, the successor of the classics in the person of L. N. Tolstoy, A. P. Chekhov, I. A. Bunin. In one of his journalistic articles, Yu. P. Kazakov argues with opponents of his direction, defending "sensitivity ... musicality ... heightened attention to nature ... the ability to show the inner world of a person" in modern works ^{[3, p. 6]}.

Cossack stories are lyrical miniatures about ordinary life in all its manifestations. His characters are not warriors of labor, but unhappy girls in love ("Ugly"), old men ("To the city"), children ("Nikikshin's secrets"), as well as animals. Animalistic prose, a special attitude towards animals, plays an important role in the literary heritage of the author. Undoubtedly, the central place in it is occupied by the early story "Arcturus the Hound dog", written in 1957.

It is important that the writer dedicates "Arcturus" to M. M. Prishvin. Kazakov considered him his pen teacher, admitting himself: "And Prishvin's thoughts and feelings are my thoughts and feelings" ^{[7, p. 329]}. I. Kuzmichev writes: "And Kazakov was called by the magical Prishvin kolobok to that country without a name, without a territory... where everyone "once visited, where everything familiar – and everything is forgotten" ^{[7, p. 109]}. Prishvin was one of Yu's favorite writers. Kazakov, in the words of the prose writer himself: "not one of the Soviet writers does not touch this secret like Prishvin" ^{[7, p. 107]}. Kazakov transferred "This secret" into the main character of his hunting story, the dog Arcturus.

Plot

Despite the centrality of the image, the author does not make Arcturus a "special" dog, capable of speaking and thereby broadcasting his thoughts and experiences. On the contrary, it is an ordinary animal, deprived of sight from birth. The whole narrative is permeated with the life story of the dog, his formation. In the spring, Arcturus is born and secretly disappears in the spring. The transition of the main character's states from a helpless puppy to a faithful dog serving his master, the doctor, is only the beginning of the story. There are trembling feelings between a dog and a person, it seems that Arcturus has found his place in life. However, an unexpected acquaintance with the forest, the first foray into the wild, opens up for the dog some new, secret meaning of his existence. So, Arcturus is reborn from a frail dog with "dead eyes" into a hound dog who chases the beast and knows his purpose.

Discussion

Earlier, researchers of Kazakov's work repeatedly resorted to analyzing the story "Arcturus is a hound dog", putting it on a par with the "story-parable -myth". However, S. I. Korolev's work is marked by the lack of a consistent theoretical base, the author often mixes the types of narrators with each other, and sometimes combines two different narrators with each other: "it cannot be said that the narrator is "lost" in the world of heroes. Sometimes he demonstrates his all-seeing eye" ^{[5, pp. 117-125]}. Our article presents an attempt to consider the narrative structure and through it determine the dominant of the text.  Since the narrative side of the story is complex and complex in nature and should be considered in more detail and systematically.

Main results

So, at the beginning of the work, the narrative comes from an exegetical narrator (external), according to the terminology of E. V. Paducheva ^{[9, p. 203]}. This narrator is "omniscient", he does not participate in the storyline, gives a perspective of describing events "from above", he harmoniously enters into the fabric of the story, the plot and plot of which diverge, implementing the technique of "story within a story". This type of narrator is J. Genette defined the concept of "zero focalization" ^{[1, pp. 391-394]}. The plan of the spatial and temporal characteristics is marked by a mismatch between the position of the character and the narrator. In this part of the narrative, we will learn about the history of the birth, the first years of Arcturus's life, as if "from a bird's eye view". The narrator is a source of information, he is outside the events. 

The effect of the estrangement of the exegetical narrator is enhanced by a bit of detachment, which can be traced in lyrical digressions: starting the story about the dog, the narrator is "distracted" by describing the peculiarity of gypsy life and the arrival of swans. This type of narrator divides the text into the world of humans and the world of animals from the very beginning. It is worth noting that he is least connected with the latter: if the appearance of a dog in the city is reported through human rumor ("many were convinced", "others talked"), then the narrator can only guess about the rest, associated with the description of the birth of Arcturus and being among his fellow dogs. Lexemes of uncertainty naturally appear: "probably", "unknown", "something", "somewhere", "somehow".

At the end of the first part, the exegetical narrator does not leave the narrative canvas, but is replaced by the usual first-person narrative (Ich-erz?lung). Now the events are broadcast from one of the characters in the story, who actively participates in what is happening. In accordance with the text, we can assume that this is an amateur hunter who rents a house closer to the forest for spring and summer. And so it happens: the narrator-"I" settles with a doctor, a local pediatrician, and becomes a witness to the further home life of Arcturus. The space-time plan is changing, now the positions of the narrator-"I" and the character-hunter coincide. Both the hunter-narrator and the dog are active within the same chronotope.

It is worth noting an important point of the narrative - how the sounds are described in the story. Before Arcturus appeared on the doctor's doorstep, to describe the surrounding melody of the world, "I am the narrator" resorted to unambiguous, precise definitions: the doctor "pulled out arias with the thinnest fistula", "the rooster sang loudly". There is no doubt that the auditory image of the world here comes from a person. However, let's pay attention to how the phraseology plan changes after the introduction of the psa narrative. For example, this is how the doctor's voice is represented: "the sounds of the owner's voice were gurgling and whispering." The description takes place already at the level of instincts, guesses, associations, as if the narration is conducted not from the I-hunter, but on behalf of Arcturus.

Indirectly, at the end of the second part, the author introduces another type of narrator into the narrative. Only he knows how the dog feels and thinks. With the advent of this type, a planned dichotomy arises, the story is already being told from an internal position. It's like the inner monologue of a mute. The narrator seems to merge with the dog's consciousness, and is able to accurately convey his inner expression in the language of Arcturus. I. A. Karchagin also noted that one of the principles of constructing the composition of a story by Yuri Kazakov is interiorization, which brings the writer's prose closer to poetry, introducing not just epic characters, narrators, but almost lyrical heroes ^{[4, P. 34]}.

Thus, the appearance of Arcturus marks the appearance of a lyrical narrator, who can be designated by us as "I am a DOG" (I am HE). He is characterized by inappropriate direct speech, the voice of the hero (Arcturus) prevails over the voice of the author (hunter), although formally the text belongs to the narrator himself. This is what the text says about the dog's feelings for the doctor: "He loved him passionately and poetically, perhaps more than life," "His feeling for his master was...exalted", "he was chaste." In this part, the "I am HE" narrator describes Arcturus' emotions somewhat loftily. He avoids using any precise designations in relation to the main character. If an ordinary narrator-hunter prefers to name, describe outwardly: "another inhabitant", "dragged a blind man", "out of habit the dog shuddered", "What does he need a dog for?". The narrator of "I am HE", on the contrary, speaks about Arcturus introspectively, from the inside, not paying attention to the outside, uses only the abstract pronoun "he" and its derivatives: "he was chaste", "he wanted to jump up", "his ears were opening", "he could not remember". Thus, the focus of the narrative shifts to the inner one.

And if the omniscient narrator stands apart from the other two types of narrators, appearing for a moment at the beginning of the text, then it sometimes seems difficult to distinguish between the primary narrator-hunter and the narrator "I am HE". The analysis of the fragment of the second part clearly demonstrates how these last two types of narrators are intertwined with each other, there is no exact separation of one from the other, the thoughts and story of the hunter are interrupted by the feelings of Arcturus and vice versa. As it was noted, their spatial and temporal plan coincides, but, nevertheless, the plan of phraseology (man/ dog) and the plan of psychology (outside / inside) are different.

In support of this position, let's consider another example from the text, when Arcturus first gets acquainted with the forest, thereby going through the rite of initiation, spiritual rebirth. At the beginning of the fourth part, the usual narration on behalf of the hunter: "I went to the forest in the morning ...". The paragraph ends with the narrator being annoyed by the dog's slightly stupid behavior: "I soon got tired of his incomprehensible persistence." However, further reflection takes place, the narrator changes and shows the feelings, impressions, thoughts of Arcturus: "The forest stunned Arcturus." The description is presented from the point of view of a blind person, the tactile perception of the environment is emphasized: "the grass is already harsh, thorny bushes ... elastic young Christmas trees." The same event is transmitted from different positions: the perspective of the hunter and the perspective of the blind dog. In this case, in order to distinguish between the two narrators, it is necessary to answer the question: through whose eyes the narrator looks at the world. Obviously, contact with nature at the level of sensations is inherent in Arcturus, who is not given to see and who is suddenly surrounded by "odorous, rustling, crackling, prickly objects." Wolf Schmid defines the difference of points of view at this level by the term "perceptual plan", where it is important who is the evaluating authority ^{[11, p. 70]}. It is also interesting that this plan manifests itself in the assessment of the behavior and character of Arcturus. There is a pattern: the primary narrator-hunter finds it funny and pathetic what a dog does, according to the plot he did not take him hunting, since the dog "ran funny" and had a "thin puppy voice". Whereas for a lyrical narrator, Arcturus is a real hound dog. It is noteworthy how pathetically, even heroically, the first hunt is described: "He was tearing, growling...his eyes were bloodshot," "He was badly bruised and scratched," "so great was his passion."

If we consider the above types of narrators within the framework of the theory of narrative situations by F. K. Shantzel (1979), we can correlate the "omniscient type" with the auctorial narrative situation, isolated on the basis of oppositions of the perspective "external-internal" ^{[11, pp. 62-63]}. The primary type is a first–person narrative, where the identity of the narrator and the character (hunter) is manifested, and the lyrical type "I am HE" is a personal situation, the narrator is not just a narrator, but also a reflector penetrating into the consciousness of the character (Arcturus).

Yu. It is no coincidence that Kazakov introduces a narrator who is able to comprehend the thoughts and feelings of an ordinary dog at first glance. Making him the main character of his story, the author presents the experiences of Arcturus as the experiences of an ordinary person. The theme of freedom – the leitmotif of the work – is thus revealed not so much due to the external characteristics of the dog, but rather to internal qualities. Arcturus, in the narrative mode of the lyrical narrator, comes to life, expressing his feelings and gaining the right to vote. One day Kazakov wrote to K. To Paustovsky, who is working on stories and "the personality of the author will be present everywhere" ^{[7, p. 290]}. It can be assumed that the author to some extent transfers his own features and experiences to Arcturus and invests a part of himself.

Conclusion

Yuri Pavlovich Kazakov, a lyrical writer of the second half of the 20th century, reflected in his works "kindness, conscientiousness, cordiality, tenderness" ^{[3, p. 6]}. Even in animalistic prose, the main character of which was animals, the writer managed to capture the slightest aspirations of the soul and thoughts of his silent, quiet characters. Similarly, in the early story "Arcturus the Hound Dog" (1957), the author, thanks to the originality of the narrative side of the story, makes it possible to understand what an ordinary hunting dog felt and experienced. It is with the advent of the third type of narrator, a lyrical narrator who penetrates into the depths of the character's soul, capable of comprehending hidden feelings, that the lyrical dominant characteristic of Yu.P. Kazakov's poetics manifests itself at the compositional level in the story "Arcturus the Hound Dog".