From idea to text: On some creation stages of E. Chirikov’s tetralogy “The Life of Tarkhanov”

Abstract

The article is devoted to a comprehensive analysis of E. Chirikov’s epistolary heritage, addressed to A. Smirnov in the period from 1901 to 1917. This correspondence is considered to be an essential component of his literary biography. The central focus is Chirikov’s systematic references to the process of his work on the novel “Tarkhanov’s Life” (1914–1917), which occupies a significant place in his tetralogy and in the general evolution of his literary style. The study sets the task of correlating the biographical material, reflected in the letters, with the artistic content of the novel, thereby revealing the mechanisms of transformation of his life experience into a fictional narrative. Special attention is given to the loci, mentioned in the epistolary materials, later becoming the key setting of the tetralogy, as well as the identification of the main characters’ prototypes. The analysis of this corpus of letters makes it possible to reconstruct the dynamics of Chirikov’s creative process, to determine the principles of his aesthetic interpretation of personal facts, and to highlight the writer’s value-based attitude toward biographical reality as it enters the structure of the artistic whole.