V.V. KORSAK-ZAVADSKY’S MEMOIRS AS A “HUMAN DOCUMENT” IN THE CONTEXT OF RUSSIAN ÉMIGRÉ LITERATURE

Abstract

The paper is focused on studying the poetics of “human document” in the works of little-studied writer of the first wave of Russian Émigré Literature V.V. Korsak-Zavadsky. This study is based on a comprehensive analysis of the writer’s memoirs: “Captivity”, “The Forgotten”, “The Reds”, “The Whites”, “The Great Exodus”, in the context of the polemics around ‘human document’ in criticism of the 1920 s – 1930 s of the 20 th century. Part of unpublished materials that reflects the writer’s credo is introduced. It is shown that the writer’s “human document” is not endowed with prevailing modernistic characteristics in the works of the younger generation representatives. The traumatic experience of war and captivity determined the narrative structure of the writer’s works. Based on the concepts of Sigmund Freud, Tzvetan Todorov, Paul Ricoeur, Edward Casey on memory, trauma and the relation between memory and history, it was revealed that the leitmotif of V.V. Korsak-Zavadsky’s stories is the “repressed memory”. Through the mnemonic modus of “reminding” and “reminiscing”, especially collaborative remembering, V.V. Korsak-Zavadsky aims to activate the mnemonic modus of “recognizing”.