Terry Fonov's "Moscow Writing"

Yuri Valentinovich Trifonov is a very important writer in the history of Russian literature in the 20^th Century.He is also a representative figure of urban literature in Russia in Soviet Period.The novella Exchange that was published by him in 1969symbolizes the maturity of Trifonov's thought and the change of his literary ideas.Since then,Trifonov has created a series of novella with the classic description of Moscow city life,including:Preliminary Summary?1970?,Une aussi longue absence?1971?,Another Kind of Life?1975?and Riverside Street Apartment?1976?.In addition,the novel The Old Man?1978?can be regarded as a continuation of this group of works because of the consistency of its theme and subject,and it's called as“Moscow novel”of Trifonov together with the former one.“Moscow novel”shows a real picture of the urban life in Moscow and has an insight into the Muscovite's inner world.It also puts forward various problems existing in the Soviet society.The birth of this group of works declares the improvement and maturity in Trifonov's thought,meanwhile,it also demonstrates his unique literary concept and aesthetic ideal with personal style.The thesis takes this series of“Moscow Novel”as research targets through urban poetry.Trifonov's“Moscow Writing”is analyzed by three themes including his space consciousness,the character system as well as the individuals and city in his novel,which expresses a deep reflection of relationship between the Moscow city space,individuals'spiritual conditions and his various anxiousness for Russian modernization process.This thesis totally has three chapters except for introductions and conclusions and these are all key points to be discussed.The study achievements of Trifonov's“Moscow novel”and its innovations are clearly described in introductions.The first chapter analyzes Trifonov's space consciousness of“Moscow Writing”and reveals its basis lies in his unique experiences in Moscow.While his space consciousness of“Moscow Writing”is described in spatial dimension of his narrative novel.On the one hand,the recombination of time-space relationship,the depiction of character's psychology space and the application of space characterization method which creates characters in the novel make the“Moscow novel”have their own spatial characteristics.On the other hand,the space consciousness of Trifonov is perfectly expressed in the specific urban space such as the riverside street apartments,villas and crooked houses of Moscow as representatives to state his multiple metaphorical meaning.In his works,the urban space of Moscow is not only a simply physical space or an ordinary place which contributes to the development of novels'plots,but also a space which carries the author's profound reflection on the relationship between Moscow city and the spirit situation of Muscovite,promotes the author's expression of the subject on moral exploration and the author's deep desire of creating a wonderful social environment and the guard of Muscovite's spiritual home.The second chapter summarizes the image system of the characters in Moscow's urban space.There are all kinds of people in Moscow's urban space presented by Trifonov,such as the people who are addicted to material life,status and fame,the people who have complex characters and spirits and give their way to bourgeois forces,the people who have independent and unique ideas toward life and society,in one hand,they obey their inner thoughts,while on the other hand,they are defeated by strong external environment.While there are also a kind of old people who are disconnected with the modern times and hold the traditional moral and ethical concept,they seem incompatible with the others,but they also belong to Moscow's urban space.The third chapter analyzes the theme“the city and people”of the“Moscow novel”written by Trifonov.Through the two aspects of material and spiritual interpretation,the author analyzes the double change in the modernization process of Moscow.At the same time,the author also describes the anxiety and real life of the Muscovite through the two dimensions,namely the alienation of human beings and the reconstruction of the city.In this way,the author take it as a breakthrough point to grasp unremitting exploration of the eternal theme made by Trifonov between the human beings and times.The epilogue of this paper mainly concludes the status and value of Trifonov's“Moscow novel”in the Russian literature.