Opción, Año 33, No. 85 (2018): 126-151
ISSN 1012-1587 / ISSNe: 2477-9385
The
specifics of
the art autobiography genre
Danara Ibrayeva
ibrayeva.danara@gmail.com
Zhanat Salkhanova
salkhanova.zhanat@mail.ru
Bayan Joldasbekova
baiyan_zh@mail.ru
Zhadyra Bayanbayeva
bayanbaevazhadra@mail.ru
Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty,
Kazakhstan, 050040, al-Farabiavenue, 71
Abstract
The prominent
feature of the writings of prose in recent decades in Kazakh is the role of the writer's personal life in the formation
of
literary works, so that the literature of this period can be called the "autobiography".
In
the article the conclusion that the art autobiography
represents a special genre in literature is formulated. The authors of the article consider that the
work based on the documentary
facts
from the writer's life which turn into
artistic characters and become not only
the
subject, but also the object of the
character should be referred to
such a genre.
Keywords: Autobiographism, Artistry, Documentalism, Genre, Character.
Recibido: 10-01-2018 Aceptado: 09-03-2018
Las especificidades del género autobiográfico del arte
Resumen
La característica prominente de las escrituras de la prosa en las últimas décadas en kazajo es el papel de la vida personal del escritor en la
formación
de obras literarias, por lo que la literatura de este período se puede llamar la "autobiografía". En el artículo se formula la conclusión de que la autobiografía del arte representa un género especial en la literatura. Los autores del artículo consideran que el trabajo basado en los hechos documentales de la vida del escritor, se convierten en personajes artísticos
y se transforman no sólo en
el sujeto, sino también en
el objeto del personaje, los cuales deben referirse a
dicho género.
Palabras clave: Autobiografía, Arte, Documentalismo, Género,
Carácter.
1.
INTRODUCTION: RELEVANCE OF THE RESEARCH
Autobiographism is called distinctive feature of the prose of the XX century. It is caused by the fact that in the second half
of
the XX century autobiographism began to
play essentially different role,
than during the previous literary
periods. Formation of individual
consciousness,
personal attitude, inclination to realistic art reconstruction
of
the world around were shown in literature more fully at the beginning of the 20th century when destruction of traditional structures of feudal
society,
development of the
bourgeois relations
and activization of cultural dialogue with the West, development of ideological
and
esthetic experience of the European literature led to understanding of worthiness of the human personality and its individual rights. On autobiographical
material the majority
of
the prosaic works of a large form relating to the period of a genre of the modern novel when the appeal
to experience of
own life allowed their authors to overcome the formulating
tradition role, its conditional ways of the character of the hero is written.
Autobiographism, use of own life experience as a support of art creativity does not waste the importance
in literature modern times in the
sociocultural XXI centuries environment that causes relevance of this
research.
2. SETTING OF THE PROBLEM
Autobiographism
as refraction of biographic material in art creativity represents reflection
in the literary work of events from life of the writer, proximity in any relation to the author of the hero of the work. Special completeness of its presence arises in the work when there is an autobiographical
beginning, a certain substance of autobiographism.
The
autobiography is crystallization of this substance in a genre. It seems, such provision does not require special justification. However, it must be kept
in mind that some difficulties which are found in the course of theoretical judgement of a concept. According to researchers, auto referential
connections in the autobiographical
text
are most often shown in exact coincidence "I" of the author and "I" of the character. But they can be
under construction and as
a system of replacement. At
times
author's "I" is concealed by pronouns "You" or "It" or designates itself as a pseudonym
(SMITH, 1987, NIKOLINA, 2002). Besides, the author of such work can state the biography, the process of formation of the personality
and by
means of display of the fictional person in this connection it is difficult to define unambiguously whether
the
text belongs to autobiographical genre.
The degree and signs of interaction of documentary
and
art material in structure of the literary work are also various and require special studying
in each situation. The detection of specifics of this interaction, features of
a ratio of the author and hero of the autobiographical text, specifics of a
genre of the art autobiography define the problem.
3. LITERARY REVIEW
Autobiographism that is testified by the history of its development in literature was one of forms of historical memory
of
civilizations, the basis of spiritual link of generations, the indicator of the level of development of consciousness. Many works of fiction are penetrated by autobiographism, and the identity of the author is often a prototype of the
main character. Autobiographism as artistic method was used by authors of literary texts in different degree. Some writers included a lot of things
in the works from real life, others – only small details of household character. To some extent it is explained by the historical
realities which required another level of assessment
of the events, than earlier. This new feature of verbal creativity was noted by researchers: "The documentary
prose of the future is also emotionally charged, painted by soul and blood
memoirs document where everything is the document and at the same time represents emotional prose …" (BARAKHOV, 1985). In the work done "Modern Russian
literature.
The
1950-1990-s" the current
is indicated in literature of the last decades as "new autobiographism" by
authors (LEYDERMAN
and LIPOVETSKIY,
2001, LIPOVETSKY and BORENSTEIN, 2016). It is significant that this term was selected from
the
offered set about which it was told in M. N. Lipovetsky's monograph
"Russian postmodernism (Sketches of the historical
poetics)" published in
1997 earlier: "… We will call it "new autobiographism" … "neosentimentalism"
… "new sincerity", "esseizm" … actualism or "neotraditionalism" …"
(LIPOVETSKY, 2009). Autobiographism in the conditions of the modern cultural and historical environment
is treated by researchers as transformation
by
the authors of "vital material"
in the direction of the existential sphere, the emotional complex and vision of
the
person; in the literary art work such
understanding of autobiographism
is implemented by the indication of the subject of the
speech on an autobiographical basis of the narration (KARLINSKY, 1967, HARRIS,
2014, SHRAYER, 2015). Autobiographism in autorolo589666////–gy
is considered as one of forms of author's figurative word game. Literally- etymologically "autobiography" means "the description of the life"
("auto"
– himself, "bio"
- life, "grapho"
- I write). The main criterion of definition of the text as autobiographies
is existence of the description of the filling
human life in it, concrete events stated by him. According to the definition
given in the book by F. Le Jeune "The autobiographical contract" "the autobiography is the narrative text with retrospective statement in which the real personality tells about own life, and besides the accent puts on the
private life, especially history of formation of the personality".
To qualify similar cases theoretically,
there is the necessity to pay
attention to the concept "autobiographism".
Here, the concept formulated
in the work is submitted very productively: "Autobiographism can be
called stylistically marked literary method representing autobiography
genre echo;
it
appears in the
texts which are
not
autobiography
themselves, they were not written and
perceived as autobiographies".
Differentiating adjacent concepts acutely, the author of this work speaks of the further: "The autobiography includes
the personality as a subject of
the description in space and time, the personality
who is at the same time
the
subject and object of the description. Autobiographism
as an echo of the autobiography can be searched only where the author of the text about
himself is defined both as essentially possible object of historiography (the specific empirical
personality in time and space), and at the same time as the subject of self-informative disciplines, philosophies and psychology (the transcendental personality)" (Medarich, 1998).As autobiography borrows the main attributes, stylistic and thematic from
other types of
fiction, practically without making own narrative structures, in the modern
western literary
context which is on the crossing of structuralist
and
post- structuralist discourses, existence of the autobiography as special literary genre in general is called into question. Zh. Starobinsky in the book "Style
of the Autobiography" reveals that the art biography does not assume any stylistic or formal unification, but only individual
text structure which the
researcher has to work at: "it is necessary to avoid to speak about
autobiographical "style", or even about autobiographical
"form", for the
reason, that, the styles or forms made by the autobigraphy do not exist"
(STAROBINSKY, 1980).
If to make an assumption that one of the main properties of the
autobiography is its reliability it is necessary to establish certain criteria of
definition of this reliability. From the point of view of representatives
of post-structuralism, such criterion should be considered not the intention of
the author
that is his aspiration to show the truth or to
hide
it,
but
reception
of the reader, that is his readiness to believe the author. So, the theorist of destructuralism De Man, declares about the lack of the essential difference between the autobiography and fiction, that, the autobiography
is not in a polar position in relation to fiction. It expresses radical idea of
the autobiography,
claiming that it is not a genre or way of the character,
but way of reading or understanding (that, actually, belongs to any other
text as well). Thus, in his opinion, the reliability problem
disappears too.
The Kazakhstan scientists allocate as one of the main signs of belonging
of
works to the autobiographical genre of the reference to documentary
materials. At the same time the existence of
individual addictions of authors, differences in the course of creation of the art picture of the world
based on real events
are mentioned.
Researchers consider that
the
structure of the character of the hero with prevalence
of
elements of the
"internal"
plan at existence of the elements of the "external" plan caused by influence of ideological factors is characteristic of works with elements
of autobiographism. Thus, the autobiographism problem in literature continues to remain ambiguous and requires further development.
4. METHODOLOGY
Self-knowledge is the ultimate goal of the overwhelming human activities. In the field of literature,
self-portraiture, which includes several
genres, plays a major role in this regard. Autobiography as
one of the most
basic forms of this field leads to the new form
of autofocus in the present age. An autobiography is a self-written account of the life of one self. The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in
1797 in the English periodical
The Monthly Review, when he suggested
the word as a hybrid, but condemneditas "pedantic". The theoretical-
conceptual basis of our research was made by methodology of system studying the art text from positions of the theory and history of literature.
In
the work methods of literary sociology, textual research of art material,
the stylistic analysis of the work for the purpose of detection of genre
specifics and there art features of the autobiographical text are used.
5.
RESULTS OF THE RESEARCH: MAIN RESULTS
In the autobiography genre depending on the degree of exposition of a figure of the real author in the text and on degree of reliability of the stated events, that is from the measure of compliance of literary material to vital
two
subtypes are
distinguished: documentary and
art. In
the documentary
autobiography the narration reproduces the empirical facts,
tends to transfer real vital events with documentary
accuracy. The art autobiography subjects the outline of the real autobiography
to poetic
processing and transforms
the concrete reliable event into the art fact. In the autobiographies
of this kind the invented, imagined moments of life often play more significant role than documentary testified ones.
There is different degree of reliability of the
art biography in relation to real one. It is defined by the nature of compliance
of the real vital set and its literary versions. Both the author and the reader can treat
the
text partly as to reliable (documentary biographic) and at the same
time as to fictional (art). In case of reliability
measure shift to this or that
limit the text turns either into the document or into the work of art. However the high measure of reliability is not it a sufficient sign of the art
autobiography
as special genre. And in other genres of art prose of the
event of life of the author can be somehow designated, but there they act in relation
to the text as an alien fragment
and gets function of the quote. These events take place as if in other reality parallel to the fictional world of the text. Despite the presence of reliability at a statement of events of
life of the author, such work
is impossible to be carried to the genre of the
autobiography.
Another matter when the life of the writer becomes a plot basis, and characters have real prototypes, the composition of the text includes
reliable documentary
materials. How the genre of such work is defined, how documentary and art components of the text are related, what is the most important task set by the author of the work? In search of answers to
the
questions let’s address the Kazakhstan Russian-speaking literature.
Autobiographism
is characteristic feature of works of such Kazakhstan
writers as I. Shukhov, M. Simashko, V. Shchegolikhin, G. Belger and others. Let's address Gerold Karlovich
Belger's creativity, the German by
origin, but deserved the
unconditional authority and love of Kazakhs whom
he
got to like as the fates decree and on a need of the heart. The
most part of novels,
stories,
essays by Belger is autobiographical;
documentation and artistry are united in plot and composition, reality and fiction, philosophical reflections and sincere feelings. In the novels "Wanderer's home" and "Tuyuk Su" the main subjects that worried G. K.
Belger meet together throughout all his creativity. These works, being
multidimensional,
with the branched plot lines having a peculiar
composition
sum up a peculiar result of the subjects developed earlier, raise them to the new level of art documentalism as the whole layers of
history, including
repression, war, labor army, post-war time and modern
reality experienced by the writer are reflected in these works (SHRAYER,
2015).
The biography of Gerold Belger in many respects coincides with the events described by him in art
texts. He was born on October 28,
1934
in the city of Engels, the capital of the Germans of the Volga region. In
1941 under Stalin's decree he was deported to Kazakhstan together with
other Russian Germans. He studied at the Kazakh secondary school, then
at philological faculty of the Kazakh Pedagogical
Institute, worked as the teacher of Russian, then in the literary journal, since 1964 he has been a
writer and translator. Belger knew Kazakh perfectly and he was an expert in the Kazakh literature, got huge recognition thanks to the translations of
books from German into Kazakh and Russian languages. Journalism took
a specific place in his creativity and was held by the devoted to topical
issues of our time. Artistry and documentation
were inseparable in works
of the writer and translator,
such synthesis gave the chance to express the personal
relation to the historical events
which
defined his
destiny.
Peculiar feature of Gerold Belger’s creativity
is that he devoted many works to historical research and art reconstruction of deportation process
of
Germans of the Volga
region to the Central Asia during the World War II and tracked their future, especially their integration in Kazakhstan. He
published
books and articles on this theme in the Russian,
Kazakh and
German languages.
The novel "Wanderer's home"
is a shrill history of the person in which the destiny of the whole people
was reflected. "But where is my house and where is my mind?"
- the author together with heroes
of the work begin searching for the house, homeland with the epigraph of
lines of Anna Akhmatova. Chapters of the novel begin with the quotes from documents, generally confidential.
Documents
acquaint the reader
with the historical and political background of the novel – deportation
of the Volga Germans right after the attack of the Hitler Germany
on the USSR
and deprivation of their civil rights which lasted till 1956, when the action of the novel comes to an end. The author in real life at six-year
age
gets to a whirlpool of events which leaves him in one of the Kazakh auls
and therefore the description of actions in the novel, in the work of art, is
perceived so authentically (SHRAYER, 2015).
From first lines of the work tragedy of the narration is felt that is in
contrast of the sharp documentary order on deportation (the epigraph to chapter 1) and emotional art fabric of the text, in absurdity and hopelessness of the first
represented
situation
–
distribution of the
deported German paramedic David Ehrlich
to work to the far Kazakh
aul.
As one of the shrillest episodes in the novel the scenes of eviction
of
the Volga Germans in 1941 appear. The author emotionally
describes how
silence hung over the Volga – because of the grief all were silent as if they pledged silence. People kneeled and kissed their home threshold, someone
took
the darkened Bible which remained from ancestors colonists. The
novel consists of three heads called in accordance with the names of heroes – David, Khristyan, Harry, the destinies of three generations of the
German family Ehrlich-Walter are described in them. Before the war David Ehrlich was a military man and the member of the Communist Party. Just before the war he was dismissed from military
service only because he was German by the nationality. During deportation he loses his wife and son because the wife is the Russian by the nationality, she does not want to share his lot with him. Having got to Kazakhstan, he works as the paramedic
in out-patient clinic which serves several villages. The
external framework
of
the narration does not limit David's character by present time. David mentally comes back to the past, the Volga homeland,
his
native village Gnadenflur and life in this village are in the mind all the
time. At the same time the author describes how the new
realities surrounding
the
main character in the Kazakh steppes gradually
become
native and close. In the novel the nature on the Ishim River, dwellings of
Kazakhs, life and customs, and also the events which were taking place are
described colourfully. David
after
long doubts marries on
Olkye Walter who is much younger
than him. The house built with the help of Kazakh neighbors becomes the real homeland for their children. The
story of the relations
of David and Olkye is interwoven into art text by notes of
lyricism, geniality, true feeling which smooth the impression of the severe
documentary facts of the biography of heroes of the work.
The reader sympathizes to clever, sincere,
hard-working, respectful
David. One of Ehrlich's features is the gaining sincere purity, even childishness:
"... the traveler smiled trustfully, childishly, slightly sadly". On
the way
to the aul the paramedic meets the child first, the herdboy
Zharas and the old man, postman Nurkan: the logic of introduction of
characters characterizes David brightly. Further the compassionate paramedic shares
a roof with Zharas, the orphan, for a while replacing the father's child. For example, the situation of the meeting of David and
Zharas is shrill, when the paramedic recalled by labor army comes back to
the
aul once again. When meeting Zharas burst into tears with joy, called David the elder brother. In the Kazakh mentality the elder brother has the special status, he is both the defender and friend, and the example for
being
in future. The Kazakh proverb conveys the meaning of it best of all: "If you have an elder brother, so there is a collar on your clothes ". Just the presence of the elder brother near you makes you sure, protected from struggles of life that is the sense of the proverb. The reader, observing relationship
of the German Ehrlich and the Kazakh boy Zharas, sees that
they completely correspond to the proverb. So, gradually David becomes
loved by people living in the aul, deserves
their trust and authority (SHRAYER,
2015). The following documentary material
is
shown
through
the description of challenges of labor army from
the viewpoint of another character - Khristyan, lyrical, intelligent,
sincerely fragile young
man. The daily
routine of a worker of labor army described by the author
shows how it was hard to survive even for the strong
people got used to physical labor, not mentioning Khristyan, the young teacher, or, for
example, the musician Oscar. Both of them
did
not bear the severe
conditions
of life and die. Delirious sick Khristyan mentally says
passionate monologues: "Where are you, the Milky Way in the cold sky?
Where has my star got lost? Perhaps it went out long ago, abandoned me,
threw, and I, restless,
toil
in the unknown
and
alien region in vain?"
Missing home, impossibility
to have the homeland, the compelled wandering in this world, restlessness, inescapable thirst for home, lonely
destiny of the eternal wanderer, tragic element of feeling homelessness
is the
most widespread motive of the German songs, it
is embodied in
Khristyan's
destiny. Here the historical truth of the German evictions is
connected to
the method of
grotesque during creation of
artistic
characters. Not casually David's character and other immigrants are
followed by the song about little Gans who wandered on the foreign
land
for seven long years.
Khristyan was glad to see the photocopy
of the map of the Volga
region which by miracle was saved by David. The brothers
Ehrlich consider the map, and the author describes the Republic of Germans of the
Volga
region that was
wiped
out,
its
capital the city
of Engels, the
meadow and mountain parts, cantons, rivers, woods, roads. "The map of the homeland which is absent …".
The brothers even have no right to hang up the map
of the
homeland on the
wall: "They
will be
seen, informed, not be patted
… on the head". Khristyan diligently reproduces a
paternal
home on the drawing, not able to say goodbye to the native
dwelling. The map, laws of the Constitution, orders of the government, newspaper cuttings, being organically interwoven into art fabric of the
work, strengthen
the historical, "museum" part of the novel, force of its truth. Documentation of the narration allows the author to include real
people in the text of the novel, for example, the teacher of German
Victor
Klein, information on whom
can be
found in
the biobibliographic
reference book of Belger "The Russian German writers". Harry's character is autobiographical
too;
David's prototype is the father of the author Carl Belger who the book is devoted to. So, lit up by art aura, the facts
of life
become brighter and more reliable. From the different points of view the author looks at the represented events, and nearly the most interesting is
the
position of the child, Harry
Walter. The German boy studies at the
Kazakh school best of all. But he was rejected not only an opportunity
to get a medal for excellent progress in study, but also an opportunity to
enter the university. Excellently
speaking Kazakh, knowing Russian, the applicant Harry Walter remains the German for reception committee first
of
all, that is the person without
the homeland, without passport, without
rights. Young Harry goes through severe initiation into happy life -
eviction, "ritual" conversations with the commandant, disputes with the rebel Wagner, humiliations
when leaving school and
admission
to institute. The novel finishes with "happy end", clear only to the Russian Germans who endured deportation. The German Harry Walter not only becomes a student, but also receives the passport. No other event could become more full-fledged happy final for Belger's work.
Representing people of different nationalities, Belger extremely
honestly shows merits
and
disadvantages of
Germans,
Kazakhs,
and
Russians. For example, hospitality of Kazakhs is repeatedly sung: "And
Kazakhs are all such ones. It is surprising: naked and poor but they will give the last with pleasure".
At the same time the aul, "beautiful"
in the opinion
of Nurkan, seems unsight to David who grew up in the German
village with big houses
and colored gate. The author of the novel gives preference to none of the nations, equally objectively
estimating acts of
each
one. Belger depicts the life of Kazakhs, Germans, Russians with
inimitable skill, showing profound knowledge of the ethnic cuisine,
a way of life, customs. Important art advantages of the novel are foreign national
cultural elements, and also multilingualism,
use on Russian-speaking
background of the German and Kazakh words and expressions, vivacity,
characteristic features of the speech of the main and minor characters.
In the work the function of landscape sketches is noticeable.
The
human state in the novel "Wanderer's
home"
is deepened by the rich landscape palette.
The nature exults by the principle of contrast, despite of tragic events, then by analogy is discharged
from the person, empathizes
the
heroes, strengthening the influence of the event set. Using a mass of
the documentary facts, skillfully applying
typification, Belger opens before the reader a hard story not only of the Russian Germans, but also
other
Soviet people in days of the Great Patriotic War. Before the reader’s eyes there pass destinies not only of the main heroes designated in chapter names,
but also numerous minor, such as: Gaziz, Maruar, Bagira, Zharas, Nikolay
Wagner, Lidiya, Esilbay, Johann, and also episodical characters: Yakovchuk, Vogel, Frese, Victor Klein, Victoria and others. The tragedy
of
the novel of Gerold Belger "Wanderer's home" is paradoxical, light,
penetrated by kind
belief in life.
From
the art metaphor it turns into
reality of life by David "The house of the wanderer": the man builds up the
strong, sound house
in the aul, Harry’s dream to become the citizen of the
Soviet power, to get higher education.
But Khristyan who died at young
age
is eternal reminder
on
the severe challenge which fell to lot of the
Soviet people, and in particular,
the
Russian Germans, innocent
citizens who had to pay for predatory
attack of fascist aggressors. Art documentalism of the novel "Wanderer's home" is unusually shown at the level of chronotope.
The narration includes three main existential plans, each of which is inseparably linked with character of the main character. Fable time-space of the novel covers the thirteen-year period of life of the
main
character. The action of the work is developed in 1941-1954. On the
one hand, in the text there is a set of toponymic characteristics, really
existing place names. For example, the events represented in the art text are developed in the small Kazakh aul of Kyzyl-tu. On the other hand, the
chronotope of a plot is more difficult, does not coincide with fable time space. The narration besides a linear event set includes memoirs of heroes,
their dreams, visions, reflections. The researchers note the
multidimensionality of space-time continuum
of the work. It
covers
several plans: real, fairy-tale mythological, historical. In real measurement
the
main events of the work develop. The fairy-tale mythological plan is
included into the novel through the reflections of the author and heroes comparisons
carried out by them. The space of the novel differs in
geographical concreteness. The
author precisely calls settlements in which action is developed and life of heroes proceeds. Art fabric of the work
includes
a set of national songs, sayings (German
and
Kazakh). They, on the one hand, reflect continuity
of generations,
unity of space of spirit of
people; on the other – they show universal human importance and immemorial character of the problems which are set by the writer.
The opposition
and duality are characteristic of the
work. The novel is under construction on the basis of opposition.
The present constantly corresponds to the past by the author and heroes (the narration
is penetrated by
the
words
"now"
and "then"). The Kazakh aul is compared to the German village. The life of the main characters is conditionally
divided into two periods: before and after deportation.
Duality of situation is their characteristic. At the level of David, Khristyan
and
Harry's chronotopes real time space quite often merges with oneiric
time-space. The
novel
chronotope constantly changes the limits. It is
narrowed to limits of private destiny, and then extends to universal scales.
The opposition is
observed in descriptions of the nature. Describing the
winter day which came in dream to Khristyan, the author notes: "Above there was malice of winds and weather, and below, in the shadow of the century-raged wood, the silence ringing and ominous reigned". Opposition is
shown also at the level of the author's concept of the person. The opposition makes the basis of the subject of life and death upon which the
writer repeatedly
touches in the novel. The work is filled with the ideas
about unity of the person and the nature. Characterizing state of mind, spirit of heroes, transferring the movement of their feelings, the author
constantly addresses the reality surrounding them. He draws parallels
between
the
world of the nature and the world of the person. Its character
arises in comparisons. So, Khristyan is associated with winter, David – with the sun. Thereby the writer shows that individual time space of the
person is a part of time-space stream of life of the nature. On pages of the novel Belger raises the problem of alienation, orphanhood of people.
Practically all his heroes are lonely. Some owing to the fact that they lost the homeland and lost the house (for example, David, Khristyan,
Olkye, Zharas' characters, etc.), others – because became isolated in their own
world (for example, David, Khristyan). Sometimes alienation is caused by "unconsciousness"
of
people (the relation of representatives of the Soviet
power to the historical and literary heritage of the German people living in
the
Volga region).
The important place in the text is taken by characters-symbols and
first of all clock,
home, window, letter. The
clock, on the one
hand, shows current
of
time, on the other – reflect state of mind of heroes. The house has several meanings. First, it is associated with the homeland; secondly, it is presented as
"keeper" of life; pledge of the new birth; thirdly, it is a peculiar temple of soul of the person. The window
is the border lying
between "internal"
and "external"
world of the house and the world of the
street. The letter reflects
destinies of people,
incorporating and connecting their individual
time and space. Thus, Belger's novel "The house of the Wanderer" has rather complex composition. So, individual time-space of
the
main character is characterized
by diversity. It covers reality in which
there David Ehrlich lives, and his inner world. It is as if on the joint of two various worlds:
real and oneiric, past and present. "At the dull winter
nights, the
paramedic special
immigrant
David Ehrlich, – the
author
writes, – was pursued by heavy as a dreadful
dream, visions and memoirs in the aul on the bank of the Kazakh river Esil " (KUDAIBERGENOVA,
2013). Individual time-space of the paramedic absorbs historical time-
space. Reflecting on the brother's life in the Kazakh aul, Khristyan
compares him with a custer Dyce living at the time of Catherine II. Therefore the limits of chronotope of the hero repeatedly change in action
development: they are narrowed, becoming isolated on destiny of the
paramedic, and then they are extended, reaching universal scales. Quite
often the chronotope of the hero connects to the author's chronotope by
means of rhetorical questions and exclamations, internal monologues.
In reality David Pavlovich Ehrlich's destiny closely intertwines with destinies of Zharas, Khristyan,
Olkye, Harry. Their individual chronotopes are not only crossed, but also form the whole. So, the orphan
Zharas is in fact a peculiar embodiment of the paramedic’s
destiny, his past, present and future. As well as David Ehrlich, the boy is lonely
and
lost a shelter, but finally he finds asylum and his place in life. Individual
time-space of Khristyan is connected to David's chronotope at several
levels. First, the heroes have a lot in common
in their past, common childhood memories, youth and homeland. Secondly, Khristyan is David's brother. Thirdly, their individual time and space are crossed
at the level of the house chronotope. Fourthly, Khristyan acts as if as the thread
connecting David to history, culture of the German people. Fifthly, chronotopes of the heroes merge at the level of a spark
character. Arguing on destiny
of the brother, the paramedic asks a question of how it is
possible to keep belief in the future, hope in Khristyan's soul. At the same time the hope is associated in David's consciousness with a warm spark.
The spark appears as a life symbol in Khristyan's
visions. It should be
noted that David Ehrlich and Khristyan Ehrlich at all their proximity
are opposed to each other. As the author notes, "the German strings" in the paramedic's soul "for years of study in big cities and long military
service weakened considerably. He often caught himself on the idea that it is easier for him to be expressed in Russian
and
even wrote
in Russian more
willingly,
than in German. He perceived way of the German village as something hopeless, backward, become obsolete, unnecessary,
disturbing original internationalism. He considered the main advantage to cultivate
everything Russian in himself. Khristyan, on the contrary, emphasized germanness, tried
to speak fluent German, read the German books, learned
verses of the German classics, monologues from Schiller, was interested
in history of the German colonists in Russia, collected
rural folklore.
David and Khristyan take different space-time positions in this plan. Khristyan is the embodiment
of
history
of the German people, its past, David embodies
the present. At the same time as a peculiar link between the Ehrlich brothers is Olkye. She has thrifty attitude to the past, culture of the people, but at the same time, as well as David, she lives in the present and trusts in the future. Harry's chronotope is crossed with David Ehrlich's chronotope, first, in
reality, secondly, at
the level
of dialogue of the paramedic and Olkye (she constantly
mentions the boy
during the visits to the first-aid post). Harry's chronotope is characterized
by
ambiguity, includes real and fantastic plans, his reflections about the present and the future. Arguing on the life, the boy compares himself to
the
Grey Neck (Seraya Sheyka). Quite often he correlates
his
feelings to experiences of classics
of the world literature
–
Goethe, Abay, and
Pushkin that significantly extends space-time borders of his individual
world. The character of the boy has symbolical value. Synthesis
of
three cultures – German, Kazakh
and Russian makes feature of Harry’s world perception therefore he as
if lives in several space-time measurements that is shown
in the
peculiar dialogues happening in his
consciousness
between Goethe, Pushkin and Abay. Through Harry's consciousness
the writer refracts the historical destiny of the German people, showing dramatic nature of current situation. The author fills names of the
characters with art sense. The etymology of names of the main characters of the work is interesting. David means "darling, beloved". Khristyan
comes from the word "Christian". Harry is translated
from the Old English as "rich house". The names of heroes, on the one hand, reveal features
of characters: people with the name David are pragmatic and persistent,
Khristyan - have fine memory, Harry - outstanding for talents, versatility of nature. On the other hand, they
reflect a course of life, destiny of representatives of the German people. David, despite everything, believes in the future and goes forward. Khristyan
personifies
the memory of the past, history, culture, traditions of Germans. Harry embodies the future, the ultimate goal of a thorny road of its people. Therefore,
the
names and arrangement of parts of the novel are not casual as well. The first
– “David” –
symbolizes the present and
aspiration in the future
which
cannot be reached without memory of the past. From here, the name of the second part – “Khristyan”, the third – “Harry” – acts as a peculiar symbol
of
the future, a dream of heroes, and more widely – the person and society
in general. Thereby
David, Khristyan and Harry's chronotopes appear as
the
embodiment
of unity of three times, as integral parts of attitude of the German people in general.
6. DISCUSSION OF RESULTS
The concept of autobiographism is extended often to a wide range
of
texts that are not autobiographies according to the formal background.
If actually the autobiography requires the
most exact keeping to the documentary outline of
author's life, then autobiographism allows to disclose specifics of the author's personality, having placed it in the space
of
fictional events and having supplied it with the thought-up biography. In other words, autobiographism
can
take place in any literary genre.
However in
the autobiography where the author directly and
fluently
speaks about himself and
about the process of personality formation, autobiographism is shown most brightly. In what way in works of
autobiographical character is there transformation of the real vital
fact into the artistic character?
Speaking shortly,
this
process is caused by mainly author's selection of material and its processing. The selection of these or those
vital events for artistic realization
is caused, first of all, by the concept of
own biography inherited by the author,
his psychological-esthetic approach to the course of life. Artistry in the autobiographical text is shown
in individual selection,
the organization and
transformation of
historical documentary material which is supplemented with art fiction, author's
imagination
and
his subjective interpretation. The autobiographical text from the point of view of modern literary criticism is based on the identity relation between
the subject and object of the character. The complete destruction
of this identity leads to transition of
the
text from the category autobiographical
to the category of purely art
ones. In other words, keeping individual traits of own personality
in the autobiographical text, the author on material of the biography creates the generalized and standard character of the contemporary personifying problems and features of time. The analysis of contents and structure of the novel by
Belger ""Wanderer's home" gives the reason
to consider that
before us there is an example
of
the work built in a genre of the art
autobiography. Summing up the
preliminary result,
we define the
art autobiography as
the work based on the documentary facts from
the
author's life which turn into artistic characters
and
become not only the subject, but also the object of depiction. The degree of documentation
or artistry of the autobiographical text is defined by the level of the deviation
presented in the text "I" from real author's shape. In the novel "Wanderer's
home"
the ratio of the mentioned criteria is equivalent, but features of the plot creation and composition, the chronotope and system of characters,
the
specifics of interaction
of
the author and hero of the work give the
background for interpretation of the
text
as the art
autobiography
including some documentary materials.
7. CONCLUSION
Autobiography or self-writing is just one of the most popular types
of
self-writing, because in terms of history the term and the theorization of
precedence are superior to other concepts. In Kazakh, autobiography is the first type
of self-transcription that
has
been
translated
from various
sources and is more than the other types; to the extent
that, in many cases, any type of self-reading is the default autobiography. From the most
popular Existing equivalents for autobiography can be from self-esteem,
self-portrait,
self- writing and personal biography. But the autobiography seems to be the most accurate and most accurate equivalence
of autobiography, because it is equally vocabulary equally. In our opinion,
the
prospects of the research of this theme can be connected with
identification of the ratio of personal and public beginnings in the works
of art
autobiography. Historical, social
circumstances have significant
effect on the description of destinies of heroes of the work. The writer designs an autobiographical character as a literary portrait of organic and
at the same time unique representative
of the epoch, tends to present the personality as an integral part of the whole public and historical process.
The characters-contemporaries of the author of the autobiographical text
also have the certain socially significant
figures reflecting
important
ideological tendencies of time as prototypes. The characters interact with
each
other, argue on the central questions
of
the time, express the ideas, and, eventually, enlighten the epoch, process of historical development. The expressiveness
of
the literary portrait,
according to Marina Balina,
"depends on the ability of the artist to find characteristic features of the
whole category of people in individual character of the person, to create
some kind of public type" (BALINA, 2008).
Thus, manifestation of autobiographism in literature assumes
volume reconstruction of the author's personality and reconstruction of its
subjective psychological,
emotional, intellectual and other lines and
features. Therefore the writer tends to represent plastically his
internal and
empirically often
not quite expressed relations with
surrounding reality. In a broader sense, autobiographism in literature can be defined as the artist’s
viewpoint of the world, himself and his place in the world embodied in the
work. In the article the features of autobiographical works of art are considered. The main criterion of definition of the text as autobiographies is existence of the description of the concrete events in it stated by the
author. In the article it is noted that in the autobiography genre two
subtypes are distinguished: documentary and
art. In the
documentary
autobiography
the narration reproduces the empirical facts; the author
seeks to give real vital events with documentary accuracy. The art
autobiography subjects episodes of the real autobiography
to poetic
processing and will transform the concrete reliable event to the art fact. In the autobiographies
of this kind the invented, imagined moments of life play more significant role, than documentary. In the article the features of a genre of the art autobiography on the example of the novel of the
Kazakh
writer
Herald Belger
"Wanderer's home"
are researched. The
signs of autobiographical art prose at the level of plot, compositions,
chronotope, and system of characters of the work are revealed. According to the authors of the article, interaction of elements of documentary
and
artistry make individual style of the writer, define specifics of his
creativity. In
the article
the conclusion that the art
autobiography represents
a special genre in literature is formulated. The authors of the
article consider that the work based on the documentary
facts from the writer's life which turn into artistic characters
and become not only the subject, but also the object of the character
should be referred to such a
genre. The degree of documentation or artistry of the autobiographical text
is defined by the level of deviation
of the literary
character created in the
work from
the real author's character. The writer at the same time designs
the
autobiographical character as a literary portrait
of the representative of the era, tends to present the personality
as an integral part of public and
historical process.
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