Linguopoetic analysis of V. M. Shukshin’s short story "The Visitant" (to the 95th anniversary of the birth)

Abstract

The article studies the poetics of V. M. Shukshin’s short prose. The research aims to present a holistic linguopoetic analysis of a particular work and to describe the author’s image in it. The material for the study was the short story "The Visitant" dating back to the period of V. M. Shukshin’s later writings. The text was examined on the basis of a linguopoetic approach in conjunction with functional-immanent and retrospective-projective methods. The paper characterises the short story genre, analyses its formal and content organisation, compositional and speech structure, as well as the level of the linguistic means representing the narrator’s and the characters’ speech parts. The study has established that, from the standpoint of the genre characteristics, "The Visitant" is a novella. It is characterised by a succinct plot, laconic narrative, retrospective episodes that form the existential chronotope, a paradoxical situation, theatricality, controversial plot dynamics, an unexpected ending, and instantaneous insight into life. The analysis reveals that in the compositional and speech structure of the short story the dominant speech layer is the speech part of the character. It is represented by dialogue or internal dialogised monologue. The dialogue shapes the severity of the conflict between the characters, i. e. the bearers of different chronotopes. The narrator’s speech performs the function of a dramatic commentary remark. The article identifies the peculiarity of the manifestation of the author’s "I" in the story "The Visitant". The author’s image is characterised by dynamism, which is determined, on the one hand, by dialogue as the main form of speech, and on the other hand, by the narrator’s shifting across the spatiotemporal perspective of the text.