Brodsky’s shadow over Pelevin’s empire

Abstract

As has been repeatedly noted by researchers, one of the most important categories of the artistic and aesthetic system of I. Brodsky is the category of language. In a number of poetic texts, articles and essays, the poet reflects on the role of language in the life of a person, and especially of a poet, on the deep interconnection of language and thinking, and comes to perceive it as a timeless, extra-spatial, metaphysical value.

The problem of language as a special sign-conventional system acting as a mediator between the subject and the world occupies a very significant place in the work of V. Pelevin. It seems that it is clearly and poignantly posed in a number of the writer’s novels, including in the so-called vampire dilogy, the plot of which unfolds as a literal realization of Brodsky’s idea that a person is a means of language to continue its existence. As the analysis shows, the most distinct parallels are revealed by the comparison of the vampire dilogy with a specific text by Brodsky - "A Conversation with a Celestial." It appears that "Empire V" and "Batman Apollo" can be read as a novel adaptation of the plot of Conversation with a Celestial.

At the same time, the central images, collisions and motives of Brodsky’s poem are recreated in Pelevin’s dilogy. Central to both texts is the image of the mouse-tongue. Moreover, both in Brodsky’s poetic universe and in Pelevin’s novels, the image of a mouse is directly related to language and poetry.

As the analysis shows, we can say that Pelevin is obviously attracted by the concept of Brodsky’s language, as well as some aspects of the relationship between language and man, man and God, implemented in his poetry, which explains the consistent appeal to "A Conversation with a Celestial" when creating a vampire dilogy ... However, if in Brodsky’s texts seemingly extremely distant from each other poles tend to converge up to complete nondiscrimination, then the binarity of language and truth in Pelevin’s universe is rigidly set and motionless. Perhaps this is what prevents the writer from crossing the "last gate."