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Abstract

The article is devoted to the actual problem of literary criticism of the turn of the XX – XXI centuries – the study of poetics space in a work of art. The object of analysis of this article is Russian autobiographical prose of the first third of the twentieth century. Autobiographical novels by famous Russian artist K. Petrov-Vodkin (1978–1939) «Hlynovsk» and «Euclid`s Space» created in the early 1930s were chosen as the material for analysis in chronotope aspect. Recreation of spatiality allows the writer to depict and comprehend the world as a whole. This feature of poetics determines the national identity of the artist, his belonging to Russian culture. The source of spatial images for K. Petrov-Vodkin is Russian folklore in diversity of its genres (fairy tales, legends, stories about the formation of cities) as for authors of works of Russian classical literature depicting landscapes of provincial cities. Toponyms, details of verbal landscape of Volga panorama «reconstructed» by the painter give particular poetry to Hlynovsk`s portrait. Author`s spatiality of thinking is embodied in many different spaces in the second part of autobiographical dilogy «Euclid`s Space». The Petersburg`s text of Russian literature is enriched with distinctive spatial images by K. Petrov-Vodkin. The author of this article puts forward a hypothesis about the influence on the system of images of autobiographical prose of his idea of the «power of fact» over a man – the experience of personal life events in mind of autobiographical character-narrator is determined by his spatial thinking and is not by images of time. The author of this article relies on the concept of spatiality of Russian culture by musicologist L. Serebryakova. Biographical, historical, literary and typological methods are used in this article.

Keywords

K. Petrov-Vodkin, autobiographical novel, Russian literature of twentieth century, art space, painting