Genetic Origins of Bildungsroman in Socialist Realism Literature: “Figure Novel” of N.G. Chernyshevsky’s “What Is to Be Done?”

The article is devoted to the comprehension of the “novel of the figure” as a special subtype of the Bildungsroman. The hypothesis of the study is to expand and deepen the ideas of M. Bakhtin and M. Berg about a special variety of the Bildungsroman in socialist realist literature, as well as H. Meixner and W. Berg. Meixner and V. Pashigorev on the genre specificity of the “novel of the figure”: we believe that in socialist realist literature the tradition of the Bildungsroman was transformed into the “novel of the figure”. The scientific novelty of the article consists in the fact that for the first time it is proved that the “novel of the figure” on the Russian soil genetically goes back to “What is to be done?” by N.G. Chernyshevsky. The aim of the article is to identify the genetic origins of the novel of the figure in Russian literature. As a result, it was found that, first, Chernyshevsky's novel retains the genre dominance of the Bildungsroman; moreover, in the presence of a monohero as a bearer of exclusively typical features, the idea centered in his image undergoes formation in the novel. Second, Chernyshevsky’s novel, as well as the socialist realist “novel of the figure,” is centered on the process of ideologization, and the most important stages of the heroine's ideological formation in the novel are marked by the inclusion of oneiric episodes in the chronotope of the narrative, which contribute to the creation of a special narrative model. Thirdly, the heroine's development is initially set and directed into the future in such a way that as a result she turns from a carrier of an idea into its translator and becomes identical with it in the eyes of the other characters: in the novel’s finale, the protagonist’s role changes from student to mentor.

1. Chernyshevsky, N. G. (2017). What is to be done? Moscow: AST Publishing House. 573 p. ISBN 978-5-17-105407-6. (In Russ.).

2. Bakhtin, M. M. (2012). Theory of the novel (1930—1961). In: Collected works: in 6 volumes, 3. Moscow: Languages of Slavic cultures. 880 p. ISBN 978-5-9551-0500-0. (In Russ.).

3. Beglov, S. I. (1984). Foreign policy propaganda. Sketch of theory and practice. Moscow: Higher School. 366 p. (In Russ.).

4. Berg, M. A. (2000). Literaturocracy. The problem of appropriation and redistribution of power in literature. Moscow: New Literary Review. 352 p. ISBN 5-86793-101-3. (In Russ.).

5. Borev, Yu. (2008). Socialist realism: a look at the contemporary and the Modern view. Mos-cow: AST, Olympus. 478 p. ISBN 978-5-17-052357-3. (In Russ.).

6. Clark, K. (2002). The Soviet Novel: History as Ritual. Ekaterinburg: Izd-v. Ural. un-ta. 260 p. ISBN 978-5-7525-1027-4. (In Russ.).

7. Dialectova, A. V. (1972). The educational novel in the German literature of the Enlightenment. Saransk: Publishing House of the SSPI. 38 p. (In Russ.).

8. Dobrenko, E. A. (2007). Political Economy of socialist realism. Moscow: New Literary Review. 592 p. ISBN 5-86793-482-9. (In Russ.).

9. Eliferova, M. V. (2007). What to do with Chernyshevsky? Notes of a reader. Voprosy Literatury, 5: 232—251. (In Russ.).

10. Gunther, H. (1990). Education and Conversion: The Road to the New Man in the Totalitarian Bildungsroman. In: The Culture of the Stalin Period. Basingstoke: Macmillan. 193—209.

11. Hoffmann, D. L. (2018). Educating the masses. The Modern State and Soviet Socialism. 1914—1939. Moscow: New Literary Review. 422 p. ISBN 978-5-4448-0730-9. (In Russ.).

12. Krasnoshchekova, E. A. (2008). The novel of education. Bildungsroman on Russian soil: Karamzin, Pushkin, Goncharov, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky. St. Petersburg: Pushkin Foundation Publishing House. 478 p. ISBN 978-5-89803-169-5. (In Russ.).

13. Krupskaya, N. K. (1927). K. What Ilyich liked from fiction. Udar, 1: 124—128. (In Russ.).

14. Leiderman, N. L., Lipovetsky, M. N. (2003) Modern Russian Literature: 1950—1990s: in 2 vol., 1. Moscow: Academia Publishing Center. 412 p. ISBN 978-5-7695-4638-9. (In Russ.).

15. Lunacharsky, A. V. (1958). Chernyshevsky as a writer. In: Lunacharsky, A. V. Articles about Chernyshevsky. Moscow: Goslitizdat. 54—86. (In Russ.).

16. Medushevsky, A. N. (2019). State-Commune: The experiment of labor democracy in Russia in 1918 and the reasons for its collapse. The World of Russia, 2: 63—83. (In Russ.).

17. Meixner, H. (1971). Romantischer Figuralismus: kritische Studien zu Romanen von Arnim, und Hoffman. Frankfurt am Main: Athenäum Verl. 266 p.

18. Naumova, N. (1978). Chernyshevsky’s novel “What is to be done?”. Leningrad: Khudozhestvenna literature. 135 p. (In Russ.).

19. Osmukhina, O. Y., Ovsyannikova, E. P. (2023). Features of figuralism in the poetics of the Kaverin’s novel “Two Captains”. Bulletin of the Russian Christian Humanitarian Academy, 24, 3 (2): 359—369. (In Russ.).

20. Osmukhina, O. Y., Ovsyannikova, E. P. (2024). Features of the representation of the genre tradition of the Bildungsroman in Russian prose of the late 1920s. Philology. Theory & Practice, 17 (6): 2079—2085. (In Russ.).

21. Paperno, I. (1996). Semiotics of behavior: Nikolai Chernyshevsky — a man of the epoch of realism. Moscow: New Literary Review. 207 p. ISBN 5867930157. (In Russ.).

22. Pashigorev, V. N. (2005). The Bildungsroman in German literature of the XVIII—XX centuries. Genesis and evolution: Doct. Diss. Rostov-on-Don. 333 p. (In Russ.).

23. Sinyavsky, A. (1988). What is socialist realism. Paris: [b. i.]. 64 p. (In Russ.).

24. Volodina, E. N. (1998). The novels of V. Dudintsev: Typology and evolution of the genre: PhD Diss. Ekaterinburg. 285 p. (In Russ.).