Dovlatov’s dialogue with Hemingway
A farewell to The Zone
This paper focuses on three chapters about captain Yegorov and Katya Lugina in Sergei Dovlatov’s novel entitled
Зона (The Zone: A Prison Camp Guard’s Story). The intertext shown and discussed in the paper
suggests that the three chapters may be viewed as a ‘modified version’ of Ernest Hemingway’s WWI novel A Farewell to
Arms. We then use the intertext as the basis for the discussion of Dovlatov’s dialogue with Hemingway and the value
of Hemingway’s personality and works for Dovlatov. We analyze two aspects of Dovlatov’s dialogue with Hemingway: (1) Dovlatov’s
emotional response to Hemingway’s novel and (2) Dovlatov’s contemplation of esthetics of art. In the end, we discuss the notion of
tradition in connection with Dovlatov’s dialogue with Hemingway.
Keywords: Dovlatov, Hemingway, intertext, dialogue, reader, emotional response, horizon of expectations, memory, background knowledge, author, esthetics of art
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Aims and scope
- 2.1Intertextuality and intertext
- 2.2Dialogue
- 2.2.1Emotional response and emotionally charged information
- 2.2.2Esthetics of art
- 3.Intertext in Dovlatov’s The Zone
- 4.Dovlatov’s dialogue with Hemingway and the readers
- 4.1Dovlatov’s reception of A Farewell to Arms
- 4.1.1Emotional response
- 4.1.2Esthetics and ethics of art
- 4.2Dovlatov vs. Hemingway: Conceptualization and esthetic activity
- 4.3Esthetic activity behind Dovlatov’s writing
- 5.Dovlatov and tradition
- 6.Concluding remarks
- Notes
-
References