2018 # 4 (30)
Nazarov I.A.
The Motif of a Broken-down Mechanism in the Context of the Literary Theme of Madness
Abstract
The article deals with the peculiarities of the artistic embodiment of the phenomenon of insanity in the literature of the first third of the 20th century – in particular, to various variations in the motive for breaking the mechanism in the context of the topic under study. In the works of various authors, a variety of ideas about the mind (as an abstract or concrete mechanism) and insanity (as a phenomenon capable of damaging the mechanism partially or completely) is revealed. In the story of G.P. Beloretsky “In a madhouse” the author focuses attention both on the breakdown of the “mechanism” of an individual (the situation when the life of the body continues after the loss of the mind) and on the conflict between man and the laws of the universe – the “cog” and the “world machine”. In the works of L.N. Andreyev and I.K. Bykovsky, one can see a comparison of the mental health of the characters with the image of the machine – the locomotive and the presentation of the situation of insanity as a picture of a railway accident, because of which the train turns over and continues to move out of the rail. F.V. Gladkov in the story “Drunken Sun” shows a comparison of a person with a mechanical object, and a mental illness with a mechanism requiring repair. In the novel G.N. Gaidovsky’s “Cardboard Emperor” reveals to the disingenuous hero the truth about the world system – it seems to him a global spectacle in which there is a conflict between puppet master and puppets. E.I. Zamyatin in the novel “We” refers to the semantic opposition “mind / madness,” in which he opposes the system of the United State – insanity as a way of escaping the pressure of the totalitarian system.
Key words
the phenomenon of madness, the image of a madman, motive of breakage of the mechanism, motive of insight in madness