著者

沼野 充義

出版者

日本ロシア文学会

雑誌

ロシア語ロシア文学研究 (ISSN:03873277)

巻号頁・発行日

no.12, pp.p72-86, 1980-10

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Yury Olesha's novel Envy is filled with various literary devices which prevent us from locating the novel within some predetermined ideological framework or from identifying unreservedly the author's real life with the "reality" portrayed in the novel. So in order to appreciate such a novel properly we have to comprehend how the author's voice can be heard in it. Envy is based upon the "archaeological strata" of Olesha's personal memories, which we can divide into the following two groups: (i) MEMORIES CONCERNED WITH PERSONAL HISTORY. "The youth of the century" whick Kavalerov mentions, means in essence the rise of modern technology and sports (especially aviation, bicycling, and soccer). All these aspects of the beginning of the century are products of the Occidental civilization to which young Olesha had devoted himself, and they have nothing to do with such political themes as the revolution or the construction of a socialistic society. (ii) MEMORIES CONCERNED WITH LITERARY HISTORY. Memo ries of works by H. G. Wells and Aleksandr Grin played an important role in the birth of Envy. It is possible to presume that the famous expression which Kavalerov dedicated to Valya was written under the direct influence of Aleksndr the influence of Blok's verses, but the commonly accepted opinion that Envy was written under Dostoevsky is misleading. It is also worth while mentioning that Ivan Babichev is a parodied figure of Jesus Christ. These memories that form the "archaeological strata" of Envy are, in eseence, based upon the author's fresh impressions of the world which he saw for the first time. However, as one grows older, the world becomes more and more filled with things that have already been seen and with books that have already been read. Therefore Olesha believed that the task of art is to show the routinized world as an entirely fresh one, and that the novel is a device for "estrangement" (ostranenie) of everyday reality. From this viewpoint, we can conclude that Envy is an attempt to recover the fresh view of the world which Olesha once had in his childhood by making free use od literary technique.