K. Lagunov’s Novels "Bol’no bereg krut" ("A River Bank too Steep"), "Ordalia" ("Ordalium"), and "Oderzhimye" ("Obsessed") in the Paradigm of Literary Ecology

Abstract

The article deals with the three novels by a well–known Siberian writer K. Lagunov Bol’no bereg krut (A River Bank too Steep), Ordalia, and Oderzhimye (Obsessed) from the perspective of ecological approach to literary analysis. The authors claim that these fiction texts about the life and fate of the pioneers of Siberian oil and gas field exploration are of great regional ecological importance and are culture–significant texts for oil producing region of Siberia. In the novels the writer creates specific ecologically–oriented and altruistic mental space which 1) interacts with reality by means of artistic devices; 2) has a certain aesthetic tonality; 3) is characterized by adequate ethical assessment of events and processes and 4) possesses a prognostic and transformation potential in relation to the reader’s cognitive sphere. The artistic devices empowered by the writer’s imagination conceptualize life experience and worldview of the characters and draw pictures of future development of the oil and gas regions of Siberia. Thus, they ‘enter into a dialog’ with the present leading to rethinking of many material values and proclaiming the main values of humanism, altruism and harmony.