On Artistic Structure of A. S. Pushkin’s The Son of an Executed Strelets

The article discusses Pushkin’s drafted outline of the poem tentatively known as “The son of an executed strelets”. We believe that there are reasons to consider it as a miniature text having its own artistic structure. Our analysis enables us to approach the conceptual structure of an outlined work, which was conceived by Pushkin but was not put into writing. We offer a hypothetical reconstruction of important elements of the plot. The key structural elements echo the Cain and Abel archetypal scheme from the Bible; besides, the motif of deidentification, on personal and social plane, must be taken into account. We mean a potential renunciation of a tsar status by Peter I during the Prut campaign and, also, an exchange of destinies between two unrelated family members (a widow’s son and an adopted son). Correspondingly, the tsar’s mercy shown towards a foster family of the strelets’ son might mean another exchange of destinies. There we have a mythological dimension of the poem, connected with categories of order and its violation. We also point out some anagrammatic constructions, which stand out thanks to the text’s brevity

Keywords

reconstruction of plot, motif structure, archetype

Received

22.12.2020

Publication date

22.12.2020

Number of characters

29481

Cite

GOST	Zaslavskii O. On Artistic Structure of A. S. Pushkin’s “The Son of an Executed Strelets” // Izvestiia Rossiiskoi akademii nauk. Seriia literatury i iazyka – 2020. – V. 79. – Issue 5 C. 41-50 [Electronic resource]. URL: https://izv-oifn.ru/S241377150012296-8-1 (circulation date: 25.04.2024). DOI: 10.31857/S241377150012296-8
MLA	Zaslavskii, Oleg B "On Artistic Structure of A. S. Pushkin’s “The Son of an Executed Strelets”." Izvestiia Rossiiskoi akademii nauk. Seriia literatury i iazyka 79.5 (2020):41-50. DOI: 10.31857/S241377150012296-8
APA	Zaslavskii O. (2020). On Artistic Structure of A. S. Pushkin’s “The Son of an Executed Strelets”. Izvestiia Rossiiskoi akademii nauk. Seriia literatury i iazyka 79(5), pp.41-50 DOI: 10.31857/S241377150012296-8

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