Anecdote as evidence: The historical parable “Lunin, or the Death of Jacques” by E. Radzinsky

Abstract

   The article studies how a historical anecdote becomes not only a source of a dramatic parabola, but also, along with a document, acts as evidence of its time. Edward Radzinsky began writing in the genre of a dramatic parable in the 1970^s. History becomes a plot-forming element in his parables. In history, the playwright finds the possibility of a parable paradox and generalization. In Radzinsky’s plays-parables there are always several stylistic layers, several speech discourses. These are: a historical document, correspondence, a diary, literary quotes and reminiscences. One of them is definitely an anecdote; literary and historical anecdotes in “Pushkin’s sense of the word” as L. Grossman wrote in his “Studies on Pushkin” (1928). Translated from ancient Greek, the word “anecdote” means unknown, unpublished evidence. This definition is extremely accurate. Because at the moment of the live functioning of a real historical anecdote, it is perceived as a kind of half-truth. A true anecdote is simply not printable and does not require documentary evidence; this is a hidden episode of the past (E. Kurganov). And in the process of the “crisis of the genre”, the anecdote suddenly becomes evidence of an era.