The image of childhood of the consciousness of the autobiographical hero of the story “Kurzhyn” (“Kurzhyn, where the childgood is hidden”) by I. Kapaev

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of some issues of the development of Soviet historiography The article considers the experience of developing the image of childhood in Isa Kapaev’s novella “Kurzhyn” (“Kurzhun, where childhood is hidden”). The writer's debut novella strives to enhance the examination of the character and awareness of a young compatriot-peer, hero-alter ego – concepts the author started to develop in his prose pieces of the late 60s – early 70s of the twentieth century. Since this is the story of a hero endowed with a well-developed personality and a creative worldview, the process of formation of his personality is comprehended by I.Kapaev in a socio-psychological perspective, in the logic of his maturation starting from the “origins of days.”

The kurzhyn, which contains emotional objects that the nostalgic hero - a student who returned home on vacation - sorts through, symbolizes the novella's childhood image. These objects have significance only for their owner, they structure his memories, call up the image of childhood in his mind: family (mother, father, grandmother), initial experience of socialization (peers), sensual experience (friendship, pain, fear overcoming, bitterness of loss). The memories of childhood appear in the novella as a metaphor for historical memory.

According to the article, "Kurzhun, where childhood is hidden" is I.Kapaev's first work in a series of subsequent stories and novels that explore the evolution of consciousness in their cross-cutting hero, an alter ego named Karamov. It is also stated that such a creative process reflects the experience gained in multinational and global literature during the development of the problem.
The article uses the texts of the novella in the original language as material for analysis. The text translated into Russian is used for quoting.