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Abstract: The article examines the specificity of the use, methods of introduction into the text and the peculiarities of the functioning of the phenomenon of silence in the novel by M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin “The Golovlevs”, published in 1880. The fact that “The Golovlevs” belongs to the final phase of the development of the Russian classical novel makes it possible to assume that this work embodies the results of the author’s search for new poetics and a new novelistic word, capable, as the greatest writers of the era believed, of preventing the spiritual religious crisis of the late 19th century. The threat of the destruction of unified spiritual values is felt by the writers as “the loss of a single indisputable language” and creates the problem of a “common” (authoritative, internally convincing) word in the novel. Silence, as an expression of an extra-linguistic and supersensible essence, makes it possible to make a breakthrough from the empirical plane of the novel to the metaphysical one, to represent eternal values and meanings, and in a certain context to become this “common”, supreme Word. The study uses the semantic and structural-typological methods, as well as a holistic approach to the analysis of the artistic structure of the work of fiction. The results obtained in the course of the study showed that the phenomenon of silence as an artistic means is certainly important for Saltykov-Shchedrin, and its use fits into the general logic inherent in the poetics of the Russian novel. However, the nature of the realization of the signs of silence in the narrative structure of “The Golovlevs” has its own peculiarities. Firstly, the novel presents a version of the embodiment of the phenomenon of silence in its negative semantics, which is associated with the author’s extremely critical attitude to the Russian reality of that time. Secondly, the character of the “idle talker” created by Saltykov-Shchedrin is innovative, combining both the ability to use the word and discredit it and use it for an evil purpose. Thirdly, the creative solution to the embodiment of the highest level of silence (the word of Christ) and its substantive content in the novel seems unusual, compared to the Russian novels by other authors. The results of the study can be used in teaching courses in the history of Russian literature, on the specificity of the poetics of the Russian novel, as well as in school teaching of specialized and elective literature courses.

About the author(s) :

Viktoria V. Markova

University of Tyumen (Tyumen, Russia)

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4412-2574

Publication Timeline:

Date of receipt: 15.01.2025; date of publication: 30.06.2025

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