This article deals with theatralisation of the narrative. The research
is based on the study of Russian novels of 1920–1950s. The term
‘theatrilisation’ refers to adding theatrical features to an epic text, or, to usage of
a theatrical code which forms the plot. This paper investigates theatralisation
both at the level of story (characters’ ‘stagy’ behaviorr, descriptions of ‘shows’
or ‘spectacles’ of various kinds) and at the level of narration (theatrical concepts
and themes used in narrators’ speech). Furthermore, the article studies the
metapoetical meaning of the ‘all the world’s a stage’ metaphor.
Images of ancient, folk or street theatre (low farce, ‘balagan’, booth theatre,
fit-up, miracle-play etc.) are being studied, as well as their their semantics and
relevance to the literary works. Various ways of theatralisation in the novels are
associated with their respetive narrative strategies. The term ‘narrative strategy’
can be defined as a specific model of interaction betweel a subject, an object and
an addressee of the work. Post-Symbolist tends to incorporate multiple aesthetical
paradigms. The novels, specifically, may follow either the narrative
stragegy of ‘agitation’ (Social Realistic discourse), the narrative strategy of
‘provoking’ (Avant-Garde poetics), and the narrative strategy of ‘revelation’
(Neo-Traditionalistic poetics). Different narrative strategies correspond with
different views on ‘the world as a stage’ and ‘the text as a stage’.
Denis Furmanov’s Chapaev features a propaganda play about Communistic
propaganda among the Cossack women. After watching it, The Red Army soldiers
think that their enemies have been already defeated (‘de-agitated’, as in the
play). To their minds, the show is expected to change the reality directly. Ancient
connections between theatrical ritual and the world of the dead are reestablished
in the plot: Chapaev’s act in the play predicts his later death and makes it
symbolically unavoidable.
Vsevolod Ivanov’s novel U grotesqually recreates many form of theatralisation
(from archaic to modern). In the novel, characters’ relationships are
based on a typical dramatic intrigue of commedia del’arte. Dr Andrieyshin,
a mental specialist, falls in love with a profiteer’s daughter, Susanna (compare
with tradiational Italian masks of Pantalone and his foster daughter Colombine).
However, it is Cherpanov, a schemer, who becomes Susanna’s lover. During
their date Dr Andrieyshin happens to be locked inside a trunk like a puppet in its
box. Overall, comic novels tend to include characters’ stagy behavior (‘acting’
and/or ‘directing’), various kinds of ‘unreliable’ narration and games between
the author and the reader.
In Boris Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago, key episodes of the ‘revelation’ plot
center around images of a crib and a cave, originating from the Nativity play.
Zhivago sets the miracle of life in opposition to ‘Harlequinade of the Russian
Revolution’ (quoting Alexander Blok), theatrical nature of the new era.
Zhivago never visits theaters, circuses, cinemas or athletic fields. Theatrical
nature of Pasternak’s novel is represented not in form of secular, entertaining
theatrical ‘shows’, but in form of miracle-play (one of the episodes thakes place
on an ancient burial mound, Zhivago’s poem equates an actor with Hamlet and
Jesus). He contemplates life as a natural spectacle, and, as a spectator, he follows
reversed pattern of the evolution of the European theatre, that is the ‘illusion’
for Zhivago is replaced with ‘revelation’.
To sum it up, Social Realism incorporate theatrical elements (descriptions of
stage shows, propaganda plays) which represent from the ideological point
of the narrative. Novels which follow the narrative strategy of ‘provoking’ include
theatrical images as a manifestation of ‘carnivalesque’, while Neo-
Traditionalistic novels tend to reference a possibility of a miracle, revelation.
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