The image of the Eastern European other in A. Thorpe’s novel “Between Each Breath”

Abstract

   The problem of the gender representation of the Other is one of the most interesting and, at the same time, little studied in Russian literary criticism. The possibility of forming an exogamous couple for an English character in a literary work indicates both the specifics of the English society attitude towards a particular nation in general, and the specifics of the author’s characterization of his personage. In recent decades, English literature is beginning to consider female representatives of Eastern European countries, which previously entered the political orbit of the USSR and were not perceived in isolation from it, as a partner for such a character. This type of a female character appears in A. Thorpe’s novel “Between Each Breath” (2007) and becomes not only a significant character, but also a kind of test for the main character, a composer, to go beyond his prosperous routine. Thorpe abandons the traditional depiction of the Eastern European Other in English literature and changes the system of evaluation of both this image and the images of English characters; while in the novel, one can observe the very process of transformation of meanings by doubling the plot situations and introducing a number of individual author’s symbols.