TRAUMATIC WRITING AND COMPENSATORY PROJECTION IN THE MYSLENNYI VOLK

Chen Jiaming

The present study is devoted to Alexei Varlamov's novel The Myslennyi Volk, focusing on the problem of individual traumatic narration and ethical mutations during the social transformation of Russia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Through textual analysis within the framework of semiotic theory, the impact of historical events on individual psyche is investigated, as well as the logic of reconstruction of traumatic memory through symbolic projections (metaphorical images, body writing) in literary space. The results of the study show that the protagonist's “attachment complex” manifests itself as an obsession with the pre-modern ethical order, and her compensatory actions (self-exile, violent catharsis) reflect the loss of identity in the context of social rupture. The study also reveals how Varlamov, through the strategies of micronarrative, elevates individual trauma into a critique of the collective spiritual groundlessness of the Silver Age, offering a literary mirror for comprehending the moral crisis of an era of historical transformation.

Keywords:traumatic writing; symbolic projection; compensatory mechanism; social transformation; “Myslennyi Volk”.