Body and physicality in the prose of Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin (based on stories)

We consider the representation of the body and physicality in I.A. Bunin’s individual world picture. We reveal the special moments of the character’s body image – the transition to another being (the process of dying and the image of a dead body). The purpose of the study is to describe some artistic principles of I.A. Bunin’s poetics and analyze the role of portrait in the work system. From this position, we consider the most representative texts (“Ignat”, “The Gentleman from San Francisco”, “Pines”, “Happy House”, “White Horse”, “Aglaya”). We identify the anthropological and metaphysical, existential functions of the physical component image of the characters’ portrait description, as well as the reflection in the character’s description of I.A. Bunin’s aesthetic principles. The study notes some general features of the stories composition, the characters’ attitude to death, the dominants that are reflected in the portrait description of dying: death as a struggle, with all its inherent attributes; anticipation of death, when the plot of the story is the road, the end of which is the departure from life; death as acceptance of one’s own path. Based on the analysis of representative prose works, we make a number of generalizations and conclusions: despite the differences in the characters’ life paths, death becomes a transforming force. I.A. Bunin as a recognized master of detail shows his scrupulous vision in this aspect: he describes the process of dying and physical changes of the human body with all its physiological features. At the same time, he focuses not only on the “terrible” side of the process, but also notes the special solemnity of the moment and the inextricable connection between life and death.

1. Losev A.F. Dialektika mifa [The Dialectic of Myth]. Moscow, Mysl Publ., 2001, 558 p. (In Russian).

2. Galutskikh I.A. O ponyatii «khudozhestvennaya telesnost’» [About the concept of “artistic physicality”]. Gumanitarnyy nauchnyy zhurnal – Humanitarian Scientific Journal, 2015, no. 1, pp. 13-14. (In Russian).

3. Krutkin V.L. Telesnost’ cheloveka v ontologicheskom izmerenii [Human corporeality in the ontological dimension]. Obshchestvennyye nauki i sovremennost’ – Social Sciences and Contemporary World, 1997, no. 4, pp. 145-151. (In Russian).

4. Pozner V. Panorama de la littérature russe contemporaine. Paris, 1929, pp. 22-23. (In French).

5. Bunin I.A. Sobraniye sochineniy: v 6 t. [Collected Works: in 6 vols.]. Moscow, Khudozhestvennaya literature Publ., 1987. (In Russian).

6. Mamontov A. Bol’shaya kniga imen [Big Book of Names]. Moscow, AST Publ., 2018, 512 p. (In Russian).

7. Gavrilova S.S. Svoyeobraziye i khudozhestvennyye funktsii portretnogo opisaniya v povestyakh Vs. Ivanova [The originality and artistic functions of the portrait description in the novels of Vs. Ivanov]. Gumanitarnyye issledovaniya – Humanitarian Researches, 2010, no. 4 (36), pp. 176-187. (In Russian).

8. Tsalkin V.I. Drevneyshiye domashniye zhivotnyye Vostochnoy Evropy [The Most Ancient Livestock of Eastern Europe]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1970, 280 p. (In Russian).

9. Koulmann N. Ivan Bunin. Son activité littéraire en France. Monde slave, 1928, no. 4, pp. 34-51. (In French).