Ivan Shmelyov’s short story «Alien’s blood». Poetics and imagology

Abstract

The author of the article investigates the poorly studied I. Shmelyov’s story «Alien’s blood» about the Russian soldier Ivan Grachev who was captured by Germans in the World War I. While working for the German Bauer in the village of Grünwald the Russian soldier observes the life of Germans with surprise: their lifestyle as a contrast to what he is accustomed to. The aim of the research is to analyze the story from the point of view of imagology, involving textual, plot, problematic and other analysis methods. The author considers the stereotypes of perception of Germans by the Russian man and vice versa, their ideas of each other, investigates the alienness of the two nations and analyzes the core of the conflict between Ivan and Fritz, which eventually led to Ivan’s death. The author refers to the historical context of the events noticing that Shmelyov represented the Russian myth about the exaggerated welfare of Germany on purpose, in order to make the contrast of Ivan’s suffering stronger. The article concludes about antithesis as the main way of constructing the story, underlines the role of folklore motifs. The novelty of the research is conditioned by the insufficient study of the mentioned story by I.S. Shmelev in general and in the imagological key in particular.