2018 №3 (60) Article 15

A.V. Safronov

A REBELLIOUS CHARACTER IN SEARCH OF LOVE AND FREEDOM: THE IMAGE OF OLEG KOSTOGLOTOV IN A.I. SOLZHENITSYN’S NOVEL “CANCER WARD”

UDC 821.161.1-31.09«19»

In his novel “Cancer Ward”, a prominent work of his Ryazan period, relying on facts and events of his life as well as on literary traditions and Gospel symbolism, A.I. Solzhenitsyn creates an autobiographical image of Oleg Kostoglotov. The character is controversial. He is shaped by the Soviet epoch, the war, and prison camps. He has acquired the features of a “proper” convict, but he is capable of moral resurrection, a spiritual rebellion against the totalitarian regime. In Kosoglotov’s image, we can trace characteristic features of great mythological personages: Faust, Hamlet, Don Juan, and Don Quixote. A.I. Solzhenitsyn depicts the character’s existential solitude, which is accounted for by the fact that his relatives perished in the wartime, his life is marred by prison camp and banishment, he is incurably ill. Only among those who have wrongly suffered, can Kosoglotov experience a sense of belonging to a greater, integral, unifying community. An important structural element of the novel is the final chapters, which depict the image of Kosoglotov, who is painstakingly waiting for the beginning of a new life, in a polyphonic and symbolic manner.

 

Solzhenitsyn, “Cancer Ward”, Ryazan period, literary tradition, mythological images, polyphony, existential solitude.

 

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