Metaphoric Complexity and Intertextual Play in Sokolov's &Shachek;kola dlja durakov
Ludmilla
Litus
In my paper I would like to examine the fragmented and disjointed
tale embedded in &Shachek;kola dlja durakov that tells
the story of Arkadij Arkad&soft;evi&chachek; Akatov, and to discuss how
this seemingly peripheral account forms an important thematic layer in
Sokolov's metaphorically saturated text.
In depicting the Akatov character, Sokolov seems to draw on several
very different sources: Gogol&soft;, his Akakij Akakievi&chachek;
(&Shachek;inel&soft;), and the figure of Niko
Tinbergen, the Nobel Prize-winning zoologist/entomologist (1973). I
will begin my discussion with the Tinbergen reference (R13/E19) which
briefly summarizes Tinbergen's work and, as noted by D. B. Johnson, is
a paraphrase of a not particularly illuminating passage in Tinbergen's
book the Curious Naturalists. I will examine the
underlying associative links that connect Akatov, Gogol&soft;, and
Tinbergen/Trachtenberg and attempt to show that Tinbergen/Trachtenberg
and Akatov are part of a nexus of metaphors that foreground verbal art
and the story of the writer in the Soviet Union of the time.