Constantinople in the work of G. Gazdanov as a space of initiation

Yan Kuan

This article discusses development of the connotation of Constantinople in the early works of Gaito Gazdanov, the writer of the younger generation of the first wave of Russian emigre. The author of the report focus on the image of city in two stories, «The Tale of Three Failures», «The Weak Heart», and in the novel «The Story of a Journey». The analysis of the symbolic meaning of Constantinople in the works suggests that Constantinople has a double symbolic meaning. On the one hand, this city acts as a cemetery of the young generation that leaves the country after the civil war, the hell world that separates the hero from the homeland; but on the other hand, it is also a window to the Western world, a springboard to a brighter future. Thus, Constantinople acquires the meaning of a “threshold” in the literary theory of space of Gazdanov. This is the line between the past and the future, Russia and the West world. As a result of this, this space acquires the meaning of initiation.

Keywords:Russian emigre literature, Constantinople, G.Gazdanov, initiation, the image of the city