Perception of personality and work of I. S. Turgenev in the story ‘The Revival’ by J. Barnes

Abstract

The article deals with an analysis of the image of I.S. Turgenev in the story “The Revival” by Julian Barnes. The aim of the work is to reveal the characteristics and the role of Turgenev’s image in the story “The Revival”. The chosen topic of the study is relevant due to the undying interest to the English writer‘s work in Russian literary studies. The personality and the work of Turgenev made an important impact on the Barnes’s wordview and his texts. In “The Revival” the author is focused on the artistic image of the Turgenev’s last love with the theatre actress Mariya Savina. Drawing on a real event from the life of Turgenev, Barnes creates his own perception of what was happening by using the literary techniques of fabulation, fragmentation and irony. British writer involves a reader into a specific game. A reader can hardly decide which facts are truth, about the Russian writer’s last love, when it is additionally complicated with the fragmentary images of what was happening between Turgenev and the actress, and illustrated by the letters of Russian writer filled in with frequent shifts between the episodes, showing the unreliability of the memory. The comprehension of the personality and the work of Russian writer is connected with the leading themes in the work of Barnes such as ageing, death and love.