Briefly Tatyana Tolstaya read a blank sheet of paper. Integrated lesson on the story of T.N.

The dream of the soul in Tatyana Tolstaya's story "Clean Slate"

The plot of Tatyana Tolstaya's story "Clean Sheet" is typical for the "epoch of the nineties": Ignatiev, exhausted by everyday troubles, experiences and longing for the unrealizable, decides on an operation to remove the suffering soul, wanting to become strong in this world. The result is predictable: he turns into one of those impersonal, soulless, whom Yevgeny Zamyatin wrote about in the science fiction novel We.

Losing the ability to compassion, the hero loses the main component of human happiness - the ability to make others happy, his near and far.

Soulless people really walk the earth. Literally. It has become fashionable now to write about zombies. More and more details on this topic appear in newspapers and magazines. But even earlier, Sergei Yesenin remarked:

"I'm scared - because the soul passes,

Like youth and like love.

The soul passes. You don't even have to "extract" it.

People often become colder, more callous with age.

Tatyana Tolstaya in her work asks the most important questions:

What happens to the soul?

In what depths, in what abysses does she hide?

Where does it go or how does it transform, what does this eternal longing for truth, goodness, beauty turn into?

Tatyana Tolstaya knows that there are no definite answers to these questions. To stage them, she uses (following Zamyatin) the techniques of fantasy.

Having presented her hero, who easily parted with his soul, in a new capacity with a blank sheet in her hands, the writer just as easily parted with him, without giving an answer, how can one overcome such a terrifying “cleansing of souls” that become indifferent. The hero has become a blank slate. On it one could write:

"And with all my soul, which is not a pity

Drown everything in the mysterious and sweet,

Light sadness takes over

How Moonlight Takes Over the World.

Ignatiev's soul was seized by melancholy. Anguish, doubts, pity, compassion - this is the way the soul exists in a person, because it is "a resident of unearthly places." Ignatiev fainthearted, could not stand her presence in himself. Having decided on the operation, he signed his own death warrant - he lost his immortal soul, lost everything (and he thought that he had gained everything!).

Let him be weak, but alive, doubting, but full of quivering paternal love and tenderness (“he jumped with a push and rushed through the door to the barred bed”), restless, but pitying his wife and bowing before her (“Wife - she is a saint”), Ignatiev was interesting auto RU.

Having ceased to suffer, he ceased to occupy the writer. What a soulless man he is, everyone knows.

On his blank sheet, he will write a complaint - the first thing he was going to do after the operation. And never again will come to him, will not sit on the edge of his bed Tosca, will not take his hand. Ignatiev will not feel how from the depths, from the abyss, "from somewhere out of the dugouts comes the Living". From now on, his destiny is loneliness and emptiness. Everyone leaves him - both the author and the reader, because now he is a dead man, "an empty, hollow body."

What did Tatyana Tolstaya want to tell us? Why is she talking about what she already knows? Here's how we see it.

The phrases “destroy your soul”, “save your soul”, that is, a person, being an earthly and mortal being, has the power to save or destroy his immortal unearthly soul.

There are five men (one of them is a boy) and five women in the story. Everyone is unhappy, especially women. The first is Ignatiev's wife. The second is Anastasia, his beloved. The third is the divorced wife of his friend. The fourth - came out in tears from the office of the big boss, the first to get rid of the soul. The fifth one listens to the persuasion of a dark-skinned man, who has "all living space in carpets."

"Woman", "wife" is the soul. But Tatyana Tolstaya never utters this word anywhere. It imposes a taboo. (Doesn't want to pronounce in vain?)

How does the story begin? - Wife is sleeping.

The soul of Ignatiev sleeps. She is sick and weak. It seems that Tatyana Tolstaya is talking about her, describing Ignatiev's wife and child: "exhausted", "weak sprout", "little stump". Could Ignatiev become strong, bring his family out of pain and sorrow? It is unlikely, because it is said: "He who does not have it will be taken away from him."

Having removed the soul, Ignatiev immediately decides to get rid of what reminds her of her - from her visible incarnation - of her loved ones.

Look at the people closest to you. It is the visible embodiment of your invisible soul. How are they around you? It is the same with you and your soul.

He claims this idea in his small masterpiece - the story "Clean Slate".

Notes

Thick sheet. with Yesenin with Mariengof (“There is frantic happiness in friendship ...” // Yesenin collected works: In 7 volumes - M .: Nauka, 1996. V.4. Poems not included in the “Collected Poems” - 1996. - P. 184-185. A vision in the homeland // Collection of works in three volumes: T. 1. - M .: Terra, 2000. - P. 78.

"Clean Water" - Search for solutions in the field of providing the population with clean water. Water is dispensed into standard bottles of 5-6 liters. Works in automatic mode. Water purification technology. Service card. Water purification system based on membrane technology. Water is dispensed into standard bottles of 5-19 liters.

"External leaf structure" - Questions for repetition. Leaf venation. Explain the difference between sessile and petiolate leaves. What type of venation is characteristic of dicotyledonous plants? modified leaves. What type of venation is characteristic of monocotyledonous plants? List the main parts of a leaf. In monocot plants, the root system is _______, leaf venation is ___________, ____________.

"Franz Liszt" - Liszt is considered a paramount figure in the history of music. Hungarian pianist and composer (1811–1886) And in 1847 F. Liszt undertook a farewell concert tour. In 1844, Liszt became bandmaster at the ducal court in Weimar. Most of the composer's piano legacy is transcriptions and paraphrases of music by other authors.

"Möbius strip" - Möbius is one of the founders of modern topology. Art and technology. The Möbius strip is a symbol of mathematics, Which serves as the crown of the highest wisdom... An incredible new library project in Astana, Kazakhstan. This sculpture is made up of many cans. Director of the Leipzig Astronomical Observatory, A. Möbius was a versatile scientist.

"Essay on leaves" - My autumn. I. Turgenev. Linden Poplar Rowan Maple Lilac Oak. Leaf movement. What are the colors of the leaves. Clusters of rowan. I. Bunin. Bronze Herbal Brown Light Green Malachite Scarlet. Themes of essays. What are the leaves whispering about? Which trees have shed their leaves? Autumn sounds. But the pond has already frozen... Red. Yellow Orange Red Green Lemon Orange.

"Lesson of clean water" - Discussion on the topic of the lesson. Leonardo da Vinci. Pure water lesson. Tasks: Sinkwine on the topic "Clean Water". Organizational moment. Discussion of measures to improve the ecological water environment of the region. The result of the lesson: compiling a syncwine. Rain water, spring water Flows, freezes, evaporates Source of life Liquid.

What is a soul? Can you distinguish a sincere person from an indifferent one? Are you familiar with the states when “cats scratch at the soul” or “the soul sings”? Soul - 1. The inner mental world of a person, his consciousness Is betrayed by the soul and body. 2. This or that property of character, as well as a person with certain properties Low e. 3. The inspirer of something - n., the main person. D. society. 4. About a person (in idioms) Not a soul in the house.5. In the old days a serf. Dead Souls. Dictionary of S. I. Ozhegov and N. Yu. Shvedov

“A clean slate” “Every night longing came to Ignatiev. Heavy, vague, with her head bowed, she sat on the edge of the bed, took her by the hand - a sad nurse for a hopeless patient. So they were silent for hours - hand in hand. Behind the wall, an earthy, tired, dear wife sleeps under a tattered rug. The little white Valerik was scattered - a frail, sickly sprout, miserable to a spasm - a rash, glands, dark circles under the eyes. Tosca waited, lay in a wide bed, moved aside, made room for Ignatiev, hugged him, laid her head on his chest. To cut down gardens. Shallow seas, ashes of cities. But not everyone has been killed yet: in the morning, when Ignatiev is sleeping, from somewhere out of the dugouts comes the Living; rakes burnt logs, plants small sprouts of seedlings: plastic primroses, cardboard oaks, drags cubes, erects temporary huts. From a child's watering can, he fills the bowls of the seas and draws a dark, winding line of the surf with a simple pencil.

“It’s bad, you know,” presses. Every day I promise myself: tomorrow I will become a different person, I will cheer up, I will forget Anastasia, I will earn a lot of money, I will take Valery to the south ... I will repair the apartment, I will run in the mornings ... And at night - melancholy. - I do not understand, - said a friend, - well, what are you getting out of? Everyone has similar circumstances, what's the matter? We live somehow. - You understand: here, - Ignatiev, pointing to his chest, - alive, alive, it hurts! - Well, a fool, - a friend brushed his tooth with a match. “That’s why it hurts because it’s alive. And how did you want? - I don't want to hurt. And it's hard for me. And here I am, suffering. And the wife suffers, and Valerochka suffers, and Anastasia, probably, also suffers and turns off the phone. And we all torture each other... I'm sick and I want to be healthy. - And if so, be aware: the diseased organ must be amputated. Like an appendix. Ignatiev raised his head, amazed. - In what sense to amputate? - In medical. They're doing it now."

“Only the weak regret the vain sacrifices. He will be strong. He will burn everything that raises barriers. He will lasso, attach to the saddle, tame the elusive Anastasia. He will raise the sallow, downcast face of his dear, tormented wife. Contradictions will not tear it apart. Clearly, the worthy will be fairly balanced. here is your place, wife. Own. Here is your place, Anastasia. Tsars. Smile and you, little Valerik. Your legs will get stronger, and the glands will pass, because daddy loves you, pale city potato sprout. Dad will be rich. He will call expensive doctors in gold glasses, with leather bags. Carefully passing you from hand to hand, they will carry you to the fruity shores of the eternally blue sea, and the lemon, orange breeze will blow away the dark circles from your eyes. Who is it walking, slender as a cedar, strong as steel, springy steps, not knowing shameful doubts? This is Ignatiev. His path is straight, his earnings are high, his eyes are sure, women look after him.

“The clatter of a gurney was heard from behind, muffled groans - and two elderly women in white coats carried a writhing, nameless body, all in dried bloody bandages - both face and chest, - only a mouth with a black mooing failure. Also, this? Him?.. Pulled out, right? The nurse laughed ruefully. - No, he was transplanted. You will be removed, another will be transplanted. Don't worry. This is an inpatient. - Oh, so they do the opposite too? And why is this ... - Not a tenant. They don't live. We take a subscription before the operation. Useless. They don't survive. - Rejection? The immune system? Ignatiev flaunted. - Massive heart attack. - Why? - They can't stand it. Well, they were born like that, they lived all their lives, they didn’t know what kind of thing it was - and suddenly here it is - give them a transplant. The fashion has gone like this, or something. They stand in line, roll calls once a month. There are not enough donors. - And I, therefore, the donor?

“Get out your scalpel, knife, sickle, whatever is customary with you, doctor, do a good deed, cut off the branch. Still blooming, but already inevitably dying, and throw into the cleansing fire. Ignatiev began to look and saw the doctor. on his head, in a stepped cone, sat a cap - a white tiara with blue stripes, a starched ziggurat. A swarthy face. Eyes down on paper. And powerfully, a waterfall, but terribly - from the ears to the waist down - four tiers, forty spirals twisted a blue stiff Assyrian beard - thick rings, resin springs, night hyacinth. I, Doctor of Doctors, Ivanov. He didn't have eyes. From empty eye sockets blew a black gap to nowhere, an underground passage to other worlds, to the outskirts of the dead seas of darkness. And there it was necessary to go. There were no eyes, but there was a look. And he looked at Ignatiev.

Look for changes in vocabulary “It's nice to feel a blunt piglet in the solar plexus. Everything is choir. - Well, okay, beard, I chafed. Come on five. Be Shcha in social security or where should you go? No, social security after, but now write where you should and signal to whom it is supposed that the doctor, who calls himself Ivanov, is taking bribes. Write in detail, but so it is with humor: they say, there are no eyes, but denyushki vie - goes! And where are those who are supposed to look? And then to the social. So and so, I can no longer keep this little baby at home. Unsanitary, you know. Kindly provide a boarding school. They will kobenitsya, will have to give on the paw. It's the way it's done. ET is okay. Ignatiev pushed the door of the post office.

Conversation on the content of the story What will be the future of our hero? Will he be happy? What does the author want to say with this ending? Can you explain the meaning of the title of the story? Name the signs of postmodernism in Tolstoy's story. What is the meaning of the author's title of the story?

Longing Go away, longing! Tatyana Yezhevskaya Tatyana Yezhevskaya Why, melancholy, do you gnaw at your soul And eat, savoring the pieces? You are a feminine kind, too ... Let's put an end to it now. Leave, leave without regret, No need to gnaw and torment the soul. Give it to me in possession, I will not violate our agreement. I won't disturb you again. Fly, melancholy, live in peace. I'll just forget about you, so that my soul doesn't hurt. And from the torn pieces I will mold a beautiful living thing, And I will round off all the corners, Diving into happiness with my head

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Tatiana Tolstaya

stories

That's why, at sunset

Leaving in the darkness of the night

From the white square of the Senate

I quietly bow to him.

And for a long time I will be kind to the people ...

Suppose, at the very moment when Dantes' white index finger is already on the trigger, some ordinary, non-poetic bird of God, frightened from fir branches by fuss and trampling in bluish snow, poops on the hand of the villain. Klyak!

The hand naturally twitches involuntarily; shot, Pushkin falls. Such a pain! Through the mist that obscures his eyes, he takes aim, shoots back; Dantes also falls; "glorious shot," the poet laughs. The seconds take him away, semi-conscious; in delirium, he mutters everything, everything seems to want to ask something.

Rumors of a duel spread quickly: Dantes was killed, Pushkin was wounded in the chest. Natalya Nikolaevna is hysterical, Nikolai is furious; Russian society is rapidly divided into the party of the killed and the party of the wounded; there is something to brighten up the winter, something to chat about between the mazurka and the polka. Ladies defiantly weave mourning ribbons into lace. The young ladies are curious and imagine a star-shaped wound; however, the word "breast" seems indecent to them. Meanwhile, Pushkin is in oblivion, Pushkin is in the heat, rushing about and delirious; Dal drags everything and drags soaked cloudberries into the house, trying to push the bitter berries through the clenched teeth of the sufferer, Vasily Andreevich hangs mournful sheets on the door for the assembled and not dispersing crowd; the lung is shot, the bone is festering, the smell is terrible (carbolic, sublimate, alcohol, ether, cauterization, bloodletting?), the pain is unbearable, and old well-meaning friends, veterans of the twelfth year, say that it is like fire and incessant firing in the body, like tears thousands of cores, and they advise drinking punch and punch again: it distracts.

Pushkin dreams of fires, shooting, screams, the Battle of Poltava, the gorges of the Caucasus, overgrown with small and hard bushes, one in the height, the tramp of copper hooves, a dwarf in a red cap, Griboedov's cart, he imagines the coolness of the Pyatigorsk murmuring waters - someone put a cooling hand on feverish forehead - Dal? - Far. The distance is clouded with smoke, someone falls, shot, on the lawn, among Caucasian bushes, medlars and capers; it was he himself, killed, - why now sobs, empty praises, an unnecessary chorus? - the Scottish moon sheds a sad light on the sad glades, overgrown with spreading cranberries and mighty, sky-high cloudberries; a beautiful Kalmyk girl, coughing furiously, tubercularly - a trembling creature or has she the right? - breaks a green stick over his head - a civil penalty; What are you sewing, Kalmyk? - Porta. - To whom? - Myself. Are you still dozing, lovely friend? Don't sleep, get up, curly! The senseless and merciless peasant, bending down, does something with the iron, and the candle, under which Pushkin, trembling and cursing, with disgust, reads his life full of deceit, sways in the wind. The dogs are tearing up the baby, and the boys are bloody in the eyes. Shoot,” he says quietly and with conviction, “because I stopped hearing the music, the Romanian orchestra and the sad songs of Georgia, and the anchorage throws itself on my shoulders, but I’m not a wolf by my blood: I managed to stick it in my throat and turn it twice there. He got up, killed his wife, killed his sleepy babies. The rumble subsided, I went out to the stage, I went out early, before the star, I was, but I left all, a man with a club and a sack came out of the house. Pushkin leaves the house barefoot, boots under his arm, diaries in boots. So the souls look from a height at the body they have thrown down. Writer's diary. Diary of a Madman. Notes from the House of the Dead. Scientific Notes of the Geographical Society. I will go through the souls of the people with a blue flame, I will go through the cities with a red flame. The fish swim in the pocket, the path ahead is unclear. What are you building there, for whom? This, sir, is a state-owned house, the Alexander Central. And music, music, music is woven into my singing. And every language that is in it will call me. Whether I’m driving down a dark street at night, either in a wagon, or in a carriage, or in an oyster car, shsr yeukiu, this is not the same city, and midnight is not the same. Many robbers shed the blood of honest Christians! Horse, darling, listen to me... R, O, S, no, I can't distinguish between letters... And suddenly I realized that I was in hell.

"Broken dishes live for two centuries!" - Vasily Andreevich groans, helping to drag the crumpled sheets from under the convalescent. He strives to do everything himself, fusses, gets confused under the servants' feet - he loves. "Here's the broth!" Is there a devil in it, in the broth, but here are the troubles about the royal mercy, but here is the most merciful forgiveness for an unlawful duel, but intrigues, cunning, feigned court sighs, all-submissive notes and an endless ride back and forth in a cab, "but tell me, brother ... "Master!

Vasily Andreevich beams: he got the victorious student exiled to Mikhailovskoye - only, only! Pine air, open spaces, short walks, and the shot chest will heal - and you can swim in the river! And - "Shut up, shut up, my dear, the doctors won't tell you to talk, that's all later! Everything is fine. Everything will work out."

Of course, of course, the howling of wolves and the chiming of clocks, the long winter evenings by candlelight, the weepy boredom of Natalya Nikolaevna - first frightened cries at the bedside of the sick, then despondency, reproaches, whining, wandering from room to room, yawning, beating children and servants, whims, tantrums, the loss of a glass waist, the first gray hair in an unkempt strand, and what, gentlemen, in the morning, expectorating and spitting out the oncoming sputum, look out the window, like a dear friend in freshly fallen snow in cut-off felt boots, with a twig in his hand, chasing a goat , eating dry stems of withered flowers sticking up here and there from last summer! Blue dead flies are lying between the glasses - order them to be removed.

No money left. Children are goofs. When will the roads be fixed for us? .. - Never. I bet ten cellars of brut champagne - never. And don't wait, it won't. "Pushkin has written himself," the ladies chirp, aging and sagging. However, the new writers, it seems, also have peculiar views on literature - unbearably applied. The melancholy lieutenant Lermontov showed some promise, but died in a stupid fight. Young Tyutchev is not bad, although a little cold. Who else writes poetry? Nobody. Pushkin writes outrageous poems, but does not flood Russia with them, but burns them on a candle, for supervision, gentlemen, is around the clock. He also writes prose that no one wants to read, because it is dry and precise, and the era requires pity and vulgarity (I thought that this word is unlikely to be honored by us, but I was mistaken, but how wrong!), And now the hemoptysis neurotic Vissarion and the ugly cheerleader Nekrasov - so, it seems? - they race along the morning streets to an epileptic raznochintsy (what a word!): “Do you really understand what you wrote like that?” ... But, by the way, all this is vague and vain, and barely passes through the edge of consciousness. Yes, old acquaintances have returned from the depths of Siberian ores, from chains and shackles: you can’t recognize it, and it’s not about white beards, but in conversations: unclear, as if from under water, as if drowned men, in green algae, were knocking under the window and at the gate. Yes, they freed the peasant, and now he, passing by, looks arrogantly and hints at something robbery. The youth is terrible and insulting: "Boots are higher than Pushkin!" - "Effective!". The girls have cut off their hair, they look like yard boys and talk about rights: scht Vshug! Gogol died after going insane. Count Tolstoy published excellent stories, but did not answer the letter. Puppy! The memory is weakening... Supervision has long been lifted, but I do not want to go anywhere. In the morning he suffers from a hacking cough. There is no money. And it is necessary, groaning, to finish at last - how long can one drag - the story of Pugachev, a work chosen in ancient times, but still not letting go, all pulling towards itself - they open previously forbidden archives, and there, in the archives, a bewitching novelty, as if it was not the past that was revealed, but the future, something vaguely glimpsing and appearing as indistinct contours in the feverish brain - then, long ago, when he lay, shot through with this, what do you mean by him? - forgot; because of which? - forgot. As if uncertainty had opened up in the darkness.

VALENTINA roger
(Poltava)

The title of T. Tolstoy's story "Clean Slate" is significant in many respects and evokes certain associations in the modern reader. In particular, it can be associated with the well-known Latin expression tabula rasa, both in its direct meaning - a blank board where you can write anything you want, and figuratively - a space, emptiness. After all, at the end of the story, the hero, who voluntarily changed his inner essence, asks for a “CLEAN letter” in order to “provide a boarding school” for his own son, whom he calls a “miscarriage”. The reader understands that the “blank slate” in the context of the final episode is an important detail, a symbol of the beginning of a new life for the hero, whose soul has disappeared, and a void has formed in its place.

On the other hand, the winged expression tabula rasa is associated with the works of famous philosophers. So, Locke believed that only practice forms a person, and his mind at birth is tabula rasa. I. Kant and the American transcendentalists who were guided by him rejected this thesis of Locke. From the point of view of R. Emerson worthy of transcendentalists, a person is born with an understanding of truth and error, good and evil, and these ideas are transcendental, given to a person a priori, come to him apart from experience. Tatyana Tolstaya does not make direct allusions to these philosophical disputes, but in her work the motif of the soul plays an important role, which in the subtext of the story is perceived in the traditions of classical literature.

as a battlefield between good and evil, between God and the devil.

The story "Clean Slate" is divided into seven small fragments, which are closely related to each other. Each fragment is based on episodes of the hero's inner and outer life. However, structurally, two parts can be distinguished in the text of the work - before the hero's meeting with the mysterious doctor, who "had no eyes", and after the meeting with him. This division is based on the opposition "living" - "dead". In the first part of the story, the idea that "Alive" tormented the hero is accentuated: "And Alive wept thinly into his chest until the morning." "Alive" in the context of the work is a symbol of the soul. The word "soul" is never mentioned in the story, however, the leitmotif of its first part is the motive of longing, and longing, as V.I.

In the strange world in which the hero lives, longing follows him everywhere. It can even be said that the author creates a personified image of longing that “came” to the hero constantly, with which he was “amazed”: “Ignatiev was silent with anguish,” “Tosca moved closer to him, waved its ghostly sleeve ...”, “Toska waited, lay in a wide bed, moved closer, gave a place to Ignatiev, hugged her and put her head on her chest ...”, etc. .

Tosca waves her sleeve like a woman, and these mysterious "swipes" contribute to the emergence of strange visions in the mind of the hero. The author of the story gives a collage consisting of the thoughts and visions of the hero: “... locked in his chest, gardens, seas, cities tossed and turned, their owner was Ignatiev, they played with him, with him they were doomed to dissolve in Nothingness.” The phrase “with him they were born” that we have underlined is reminiscent of the non-assertion of Kant and other philosophers that a person from birth is not a tabula rasa.

The author "includes" the reader in the stream of consciousness of the hero, which makes it possible to significantly expand the context of the work. It is noteworthy that almost all the pictures that are drawn in the mind of a strange hero have an apocalyptic character. "Inhabitants, color the sky in twilight color, sit on the stone thresholds of abandoned houses, damage your hands, lower your heads ...". The mention of lepers, deserted alleys, abandoned hearths, cooled ashes, market squares overgrown with grass, gloomy landscapes - all this enhances the state of anxiety and longing in which the hero is. As if playing with the reader, the author draws a low red moon in the inky sky, and against this background - a howling wolf... the hero of the story.

The longing of the hero is motivated in the story by life circumstances - the illness of the child, for whose sake the wife quit her job, as well as the internal split associated with the fact that, in addition to his wife, he also has Anastasia. Ignatiev pities the sick Valerik, pities his wife, himself and Anastasia. Thus, the motive of longing is closely connected at the beginning of the story with the motive of pity, which intensifies in the further narration, in particular, in the first part, and disappears in the second part, because the hero’s soul disappears, and along with it, longing.

A feature of the chronotope of the story is the connection of different time layers - the past and the present. In the present in Ignatiev - “little white Valerik - a frail, sickly sprout, miserable in a spasm - a rash, glands, dark circles under the eyes”, in the present and a faithful wife, and next to her in his soul - “unsteady, evasive Anastasia”. The author immerses the reader into the inner world of the hero, which strikes with its gloominess. His "visions" follow each other like frames of a chronicle. They are united by common moods, fragmented and appear in the hero's mind in the same way as miracles appear in fairy tales - by magic. However, in Tolstoy's story, there are other “swings” - not of a good sorceress, but of longing.

In the second "vision" - a string of ships, old sailboats, Which "leave the harbor no one knows where", sweat? - Why did the ropes loosen. Human life is often compared in literature to a ship setting sail. This "vision" does not accidentally arise in the mind of the hero, it is not by chance that he sees sick children sleeping in the cabin. In the stream of his thoughts, Ignatiev's anxiety for his small, sick son was reflected.

The third picture is saturated with oriental and at the same time mystical motifs. A rocky desert, a camel stepping at a measured pace... There is a lot of mystery here. For example, why does frost glisten on a cold rocky plain? Who is he, the Mysterious Horseman, whose mouth "gaps with bottomless gaps", "and deep mournful furrows were drawn on the cheeks of the millennium by pouring tears"? The motives of the apocalypse are palpable in this fragment, and the Mysterious Horseman is perceived as a symbol of death. As the author of a work created in the style of postmodernism, Tatyana Tolstaya does not strive to create Clear, definite pictures, images. Her descriptions are impressionistic, aimed at creating a certain impression.

In the last, fourth "Vision", which appeared in the mind of the hero, there are reminiscences and allusions from Gogol's story "The Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala". Here is the same fragmentation of perception as in the previous episode. Anastasia, as a symbol of the Devil's temptation, and "wandering lights over the marsh bog" stand side by side, are mentioned in one sentence. "Hot flower", "red flower", which "floats", "blinks", "flashes", is associated with the fern flower in Gogol's story, which promises the hero the fulfillment of his desires. The intertextual connections between the fragment under consideration and Gogol's work are clear, they are emphasized by the author with the help of distinct reminiscences and allusions. Gogol has "swampy swamps"; in T. Tolstoy - “Swamp quagmire”, “springy brown bumps”, fog (“white clubs”), moss. Gogol has "hundreds of hairy hands reaching out to the flower", mentions "ugly monsters". In T. Tolstoy "Shaggy heads are in the moss". The fragment under consideration combines with Gogol's text the motif of the sale of the soul (in Gogol - the line, in T. Tolstoy - Satan). On the whole, the “vision” or dream of Ignatiev performs the function of artistic anticipation in the text of the story. After all, the hero of Gogol's story, Petrus Bezrodny, must sacrifice the blood of an infant - innocent Ivas. This is the requirement of evil spirits. Ignatiev in Tolstoy's story "A Clean Sheet" will also make a sacrifice - he will give up the most precious thing that he had, including his own son.

So, in the first part of the story, this is his exposition. The leading motive of this part is the motive of longing that haunts Ignatiev, who is, in fact, a marginal hero. He is lonely, tired of life. His material problems are NOT emphasized in the story. However, some details more eloquently indicate that they were, for example, the mention that “the wife sleeps under a torn blanket”, that the hero walks in a “tea-colored” shirt, which his dad also wore, “he married in it, and met Valerik from the hospital, "went on dates with Anastasia ...

The motives stated at the beginning of the work are developed in the further narration. Ignatiev continues to be haunted by melancholy (“her flat, blunt head popped up here and there”), he still pities his wife, telling a friend that “she is a saint”, and still thinks about Anastasia. The mention of the famous fairy tale “Turnip” is not accidental in the story, and it is not accidental that in the monologues of the heroes it coexists with the name of the mistress: “And it’s all lies, if the turnip is settled, you won’t pull it out. I know. Anastasia ... You call, you call - she is not at home. The situation in which Ignatiev is, outlined clearly and definitely. He faces a dilemma: either a faithful but tormented wife, or a beautiful but evasive Anastasia. It is difficult for the hero to make a choice, he does not want and, obviously, cannot refuse either his wife or his mistress. The reader can only guess that he is weak, that he has a service, but the camera is of interest to her, there is no favorite thing, because

it is NOT spoken about. And so his longing is not accidental. Ignatiev realizes that he is a loser.

One can reproach the author that the character of the protagonist is outlined indistinctly. However, it seems that T. Tolstaya did not strive for such clarity. She creates a conditional text, draws a conditional world in which everything obeys the laws of the aesthetic game. The hero of the story plays with life. He makes plans, mentally works out possible options for a future happy life: “I’ll forget Anastasia, earn a lot of money, take Valery to the south ... Renovate the apartment ...». However, he understands that when all this is achieved, longing will NOT leave him, that the “living” will continue to torment him.

In the image of Ignatiev, T. Tolstaya creates parodies of a romantic hero - lonely, suffering, misunderstood, focused on her inner worldview. However, the hero of the story lives in a different era than the heroes of romantic works. It was Lermontov’s Pechorin who could come to the sad conclusion that his “soul was corrupted by the light”, which, apparently, had a high destiny for him, but he did not guess this destiny. In the context of the romantic era, such a hero was perceived as a tragic person. Unlike the romantic sufferers, the characters in T. Tolstoy's story, in particular, Ignatiev and his friend, do not mention the soul. This word is not in their vocabulary. The motive of suffering is given in a reduced, parodic way. The hero does not even think about a high destiny. Thinking about his character, one involuntarily recalls Tatyana Pushkinskoye's question: “Isn't he a parody? “The reader understands that Ignatiev’s anguish and suffering are due to the fact that he sees no way out of the situation that he himself created. From the point of view of Ignatiev’s friend, he is just a “woman”: “Just think, world sufferer!” "You revel in your imaginary torments"... It is noteworthy that the phrase "world sufferer" sounds in an ironic context. And although the nameless friend of the hero is the bearer of an ordinary average consciousness, his statements confirm the assumption that the image of Ignatiev is a parody of a romantic hero. He cannot change the current situation (for this there is neither will nor determination), and therefore it turns out to be easier for him to change himself. But Ignatiev does NOT choose the path of moral self-improvement, which was close, for example, to many Tolstoy's heroes. No, it is easier for him to get rid of the "living" , that is, souls.“I’ll have an operation ..., I’ll buy a car ...” The author makes it possible to understand that material wealth will not save a person from suffering.

In the third part of the story, it is not by chance that Ignatiev witnesses how the swarthy short "man" called "his Anastasia", whose name was Raisa, as he promised her a paradise, from his point of view, life. “You will live like cheese in butter”, “Yes, I have all the living space in carpets! "- he said, and then left the telephone booth with tear-stained eyes and an angry face. But this case did not stop the hero. He made a decision, although not immediately.

A meeting with classmates of his friend, who was “cut out” or “pulled out” of “her” (the reader has long guessed that it was about the soul) as something unnecessary, dead, served as the impetus for making a decision. The hero was not alarmed by the fact that a tear-stained woman “came out” of N.’s office, because his attention and the attention of a friend were riveted to the second - to golden fountain pens and expensive cognacs, to the luxury that they saw there. The motif of wealth is enhanced in this part of the work. The author gives the concept that this motive in the mind of an ordinary, average person is closely connected with the image of a successful man. In a distorted world, heroes like N are associated with real men. T. Tolstaya in this case is another example of a parodic worldview. But the ideal of a real man, familiar in Ignatiev's environment, is instilled in him by both his friend and Anastasia, who drinks "red wine" with others and on whom the "red dress" burns with a "love flower". The symbolism of color and the mention of the "love flower" are not accidental here. All of these details resonate with the motives of temptation, with the episode discussed above from Gogol's story "The Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala." "Love flower" is associated with "love potion", which is a symbol of the magical influence on the feelings and actions of a person. The "love flower" for Ignatiev was Anastasia, who speaks "demonic words" and smiles with a "demonic smile." She tempts like a demon. The ideals of the crowd become ideals for Ignatiev. And in order to fulfill his dream - to get rid of contradictions, "tame the elusive Anastasia", save Valerik, Ignatiev needs to "become rich, with fountain pens." This clarification - "with fountain pens" - shows through the author's irony. Ignatiev’s internal monologue also evokes an ironic smile: “Who is this coming, slender as a cedar, strong as steel, with springy steps that do not know shameful doubts? This is Ignatiev. His path is straight, his earnings are high, his eyes are sure, women look after him.

In the hero's thoughts, the wife is constantly associated with something dead. So, Ignatiev wanted to "caress the parchment locks of his hair, but his hand met only the cold of the sarcophagus." As a symbol of cold and death, the story mentions several times “rocky hoarfrost, the jingling of a harness of a lone camel, a lake frozen to the bottom”, “a frozen horseman”. The same function is performed by the mention that "Osiris is silent." Note that in Egyptian mythology, Osiris, the god of the productive forces of nature, dies every year and is reborn to a new life. Oriental motifs are also present in the hero's dreams in how he - "wise, whole, perfect - will ride on a white front elephant, in a carpet arbor with flower fans". Yes, Depicting the inner world of the hero, the author spares no irony. After all, he wants a miracle, an instant transformation that would bring him recognition, fame, wealth without any effort. A "miracle" happens, the hero changes, but only becomes not the same as he imagined himself in his dreams. However, he no longer notices and does not understand. The instantaneous removal of the "Alive" - ​​his soul - made him the way he was supposed to be. Given his desires and thoughts.

The author of the story freely plays with images of world culture, we invite the reader to unravel them. The work is based on the motif of selling the soul to the devil, Satan, Antichrist, evil spirits, common in world literature, as well as the Metamorphosis motif associated with it. It is known that like Christ performing a miracle, the Antichrist imitates the miracles of Christ. So, Satan, under the guise of an Assyrian, "Physician of Doctors", imitates the actions of a doctor. After all, a real doctor heals both the body and the soul. The Assyrian "extracts", that is, removes the soul. Ignatieff is struck by the fact that “he had no eyes, but there was a look”, “the abyss looked out of the eye sockets”, and since there were no eyes - “the mirror of the soul”, then there was no soul. The hero is struck by the blue beard of the Assyrian and his cap in the form of a ziggurat. “What kind of Ivanov is he ...” - Ignatiev was horrified. But it was already too late. His “belated doubts” disappeared, and with them - and “betrayed by him under ?? Uh-huh - longing. " The hero enters the realm of the Antichrist - the realm of moral evil. Here "people will be selfish, greedy, Proud, Arrogant, blaspheming, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, impious, unmerciful, unfaithful to the word ..., impudent, pompous, loving pleasure more than God." According to a medieval expression, the Antichrist is the ape of Christ, his false double. The doctor in Tolstoy's story "A Clean Slate" is a fake double of the doctor. He puts on gloves not for sterility, but "To keep his hands dirty." He is rude to his patient when he sarcastically remarks about his soul: “Do you think your soul is big?” The author of the story Uses a well-known mythological plot, significantly modernizing it.

T. Tolstoy's story "Clean Slate" is a vivid example of postmodern discourse with many features inherent in it. Indeed, in the inner world of the hero there is something terrible and unusual, the hero feels internal disharmony. T. Tolstaya emphasizes the conventionality of the depicted world, playing with the reader. The motives of the aesthetic game play a structure-forming role in its story. The game with the reader has different forms of manifestation in the work, which affects the depiction of events on the verge of the real and the unreal. The author "plays" with spatial and temporal images, making it possible to freely move from one time to another, update information of various kinds, which opens up wide scope for the reader's imagination. The game is reflected in the use of intertext, mythologies, irony, in the combination of different styles. So, the colloquial, reduced, vulgar vocabulary of the hero degraded at the end of the work is a complete contrast in comparison with the vocabulary that occurs in his stream of consciousness at the beginning of the story. The hero plays with life, and the author's aesthetic game with the reader allows not only to re-create the well-known plot motifs and images, but also turns the hero's tragedy into a farce.

The title of the story “A Blank Slate” actualizes the old philosophical dispute about what the mind and soul of a person are like from birth: tabula rasa or not tabula rasa? Yes, a lot is inherent in a person from birth, but his soul continues to be a battlefield of God and the Devil, Christ and Antichrist. In the case of Ignatiev, in T. Tolstoy's story, the Antichrist won.

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Dal V.I. Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language. Modern version. /IN. I. Dahl. - M.: EKSMO-Press, 2000. - 736 p.

Myths of the peoples of the world: encyclopedia: in 2 volumes - M .: Sov. encyclopedia, 1991. - Vol. 1. - 671 p.

Tolstaya T. Clean sheet /T. Tolstaya // Love - do not love: stories / T. Thick. - M.: Onyx: OLMA-PRESS, 1997. - S. 154 -175.