Published 2024-01-30
Keywords
- Odesa text, Odesa myth, mytho-criticism, archetype, melancholy.
How to Cite
Abstract
In the research, with the help of the method of mytho-criticism and archetypal analysis (Carl Gustav Jung), the author has analyzed and outlined the chronotope represented in the stories in Bera and Cucumber by Aleksandr Korotko. This book, translated into English by M. Pursglove, was published in London in 2023. With the help of archetypal analysis, the Odesa text was characterized as a mythological one. It has been investigated that the Odesa narrative represents a special worldview of the heroes, who are characterized by a combination of kabbalistic worldview, Christian humanism, Turkish melancholy, contemplativeness that results from the unity of the heroes of the Odesa space with eternal nature elements. The writer reconstructs the Odesa identity in its ontological form: the social interaction between the characters reveals their essence superficially, on the other hand, the anthropocene way of depicting the characters as immanently connected with the elements of nature reveals their universal ontological essence. The Odesa text is represented as mythological one, the loci of which are subordinated to the idea of the immutability of space and time. This is the peculiarity of the chronotope marked by mythological intentions: the characters appear only as variable, fluid entities in the macrocosm of Odesa that as depicted in Korotko’s stories is characterized by the intertwined relationships between the spirit, nature, and humanity from ancient times. Rather than viewing human beings and nature within a subject-object framework, the writer presents a holistic system that reflects an anthropocene perspective of the world. The article argues that traditional logocentric paradigms fall short in capturing and unraveling the identity of Odesa that is intricately woven into the interconnected narratives of Korotko's stories.
Downloads
References
Castree, N. (2015). Changing the Anthropo (s) cene: Geographers, global environmental change and the politics of knowledge. Dialogues in Human Geography, 5(3), 301-316.
Crutzen, P. J., & Stoermer, E. F. (2000). The Anthropocene: Global Change Newsletter, v. 41. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Stockholm, Sweden, 14-17.
Dalby, S. (2015). Anthropocene formations: Environmental security, geopolitics and disaster. Theory, Culture & Society, 34(2-3). https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276415598629
Drozdovskyi, D. (2023). Discourse of resistance in contemporary Ukrainian fiction: satire and anti-colonial motives in Maria Miniailo’s Stolen Spring. Amazonia Investiga, 12(61), 10-16. https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2023.61.01.1
Drozdovskyi, D. (2013). Orhan Pamuk’s Istanbul. Vsiknygy. URL: http://vsiknygy.net.ua/shcho_pochytaty/27506/
Drozdovskyi, D. (2021). Parabolic Realism in Discourse on Contemporary Ukrainian Fiction. The International Journal of Literary Humanities, 19(1), 181-192. https://doi.org/10.18848/2327-7912/CGP/v19i01/181-192
Gauhman, M. (2016). The myth of Odesa: reflections on Charles King’s book ‘Odesa: spirit and death of the city of dreams’. Ukra?na moderna. URL: http://uamoderna.com/blogy/mikhailo-gaukhman/mit-odesi
G?nr?hs, Ja. P. (2011). El mito de Odesa. K.: Literatura triste, 182 p. ISBN 978-966-378-202-7. https://www.judaicacenter.kyiv.ua/en/odesa_myth/
Kaya, S. (2021). The city as a myth in Ukrainian and Turkish prose of postmodernity: features of the author and national representations. (Thesis for a Doctoral degree in Philosophy). Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University, Kyiv.
Korotko, A. (2023). Bera and Cucumber; trans. into English by Miachel Pursglove. London: Glagoslav Publications. ISBN: 9781804840955
Macfarlane, R. (2016). ‘Generation Anthropocene: How humans have altered the planet for ever’. The Guardian, April 1. Available at: https://acortar.link/RMRnpi
Mentz, S. (2019). Break up the Anthropocene. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press. https://acortar.link/j0xGK4
McKenzie, W. (2015). Molecular Red: Theory for the Anthropocene. London: Verso Books. https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/61-molecular-red
Napolitano, V. (2017). Writings edges and the sex of Earth beings. Hau: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 7(1), 559-565. https://doi.org/10.14318/hau7.1.043
Pamuk, O. (2012). Istanbul: memories and the city; trans. from English Yu. Hryhorenko. Kharkiv.: Folio, pp. 512. https://folio.com.ua/books/Stambul:-misto-ta-spogadi
Scholem, G. (1969). On the Kabbalah and its Symbolism (Mysticism and Kabbalah). Schocken Books. https://acortar.link/Dd5upV
Shekhovtsova, T., & Yurchenko, S. (2020). Odessa text and Odessa myth in the Russian prose of the 1920s-1930s. The Journal of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University. Series “Philology”, (86), 5-48. https://doi.org/10.26565/2227-1864-2020-86-05
Stepanova, A. (2022). Odessa Text by Isaac Babel: the Fate of Man in a City Fallen into Decline. Slavia orientalis, LXXI(4), 730-747. https://doi.org/10.24425/slo.2022.143216
Trexler, A. (2015). Anthropocene Fictions: The Novel in a Time of Climate Change. University of Virginia Press, 272 ?. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt13x1r99
Waters, C. N., Zalasiewicz, J. A., Williams, M., Ellis, M. A., & Snelling, A. M. (2014). A Stratigraphical Basis for the Anthropocene. London: Geological Society Publishing, 321 p.