MYTHOLOGICAL SUBTEXT OF B. SCHULTZ’S STORY «AUGUST»

Abstract

Domestic Schultz studies have recently been flourishing and are following a mythocritical path, trying to comprehend the pervasive images, motifs and collisions of B. Schultz’s works. Although the perception of B.Schultz’s mythologism as individual-authorial helps to illuminate the subtext of his works, at the same time this perception narrows the spectrum of possibilities for penetrating it. It is so because something authorial mostly does not require recognition, but only description, and the results of the description also require generalizations, but such generalizations necessarily schematize the approach and do not bring discoveries. However, if we abstract from the understanding of B. Schultz’s mythologism as specifically authorial and if we look at it from the perspective of general mythological regularities and criteria, it can reveal unexpected meanings.The purpose of our study is a mythocritical analysis of the plot of «August», the first story in the book «The Cinnamon Shops», from a general mythological perspective and in the context of the basic mythological picture of the world.B. Schulz’s stories are amazing not only in their style, but also in plot, and in order to understand them, get an explanation of what is happening and why the characters of the stories are so strange and behave in such an eccentric way, it is necessary to find out their mythological characters and functions. It means to see their roles in the mythological picture of the world.The plot of B. Schulz’s story «August» is based on a mythological picture of the world, which is divided into sacred, profane and chthonic zones. This picture is represented by its most important figures: the demiurge, the Great Goddess and the trickster. The action takes place in the absence of the demiurge, when nature without his guidance is left alone and the world is ruled by the Great Goddess of fertility, into whose secret the boy-narrator becomes initiated. It changes his worldview and makes him the next demiurge. The meeting with the trickster at the end of the story confirms the demiurge powers of the boy-narrator.