Abstract of the work blank sheet Tatyana Tolstaya. Integrated lesson on the story by T.N.

S.A. GIMATDINOVA,
Naberezhnye Chelny

Integrated lesson on the story by T.N. Tolstoy "Clean Slate"

Goals.

1. Introduction to the content and analysis of the story.
2. Work on the language of the work.

A miracle is something that is impossible and yet possible.
Something that cannot happen and yet happens.

(Bernard Show. Back to Methuselah)

For a great deed - a great word.
From an excess of feelings, the lips speak.

(Proverbs)

Today in the lesson we will get acquainted with the story of the modern writer Tatyana Nikitichna Tolstoy “A Blank Slate”, we will try to analyze it and work on the language of the work.

T.N. Tolstaya was born in 1951. Granddaughter of Alexei Nikolaevich Tolstoy, an outstanding writer, author... (students suggest: “The Adventures of Pinocchio”, “Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin”, “Aelita”, “Walking in Torment”, “Peter I”). She entered literature in the 1980s and immediately became famous for her stories, which combine precision drawing with flights of fancy, psychologism with the grotesque, comprehension of spiritual secrets with sophisticated writing technique. For the novel “Kys” she was awarded the literary “Oscar” - the Triumph Award for 2001; became the winner of the competition “Best publications of the XIV Moscow International Book Fair in the “Prose 2001” category.”

“A Blank Slate” is one of the best and most mysterious stories by Tatyana Tolstoy. You have already read this work at home.

– Who is its main character? What can you say about him and his family? (The main character is Ignatiev. He lives with his wife and sick child.)

– How does he treat his wife? (He feels sorry for her. “Nothing is more exhausting than a sick child.” Covers her with a blanket when she falls asleep. Notices her “haggard face,” offers to bring a pillow. “Sallow, tired, dear wife sleeps under a torn blanket.” This is the key phrase in understanding Ignatiev's relationship with his wife. How much pain, how much compassion for the mother of his sick child!)

– What is Ignatiev’s attitude towards his son Valerik? (Loves him, feels sorry for him.)

- How can you see that he loves you? (“Little white Valerik was scattered - a frail, painful sprout, pitiful to the point of spasm - rash, glands, dark circles under the eyes.”)

– Find words with diminutive suffixes (white, sprout, glands). They talk about a father's reverent love and tenderness for the child.

When the boy groaned in the next room, “Ignatiev jumped through the door and rushed to the barred crib.”

I draw students’ attention to expressive synonyms: jumped, rushed, - which convey the speed of action of the alarmed father.

Finishing the conversation about Ignatiev the husband, Ignatiev the father, I quote: “...I felt sorry for her, felt sorry for the frail, white, sweating Valerik again, felt sorry for himself, left, lay down and lay awake, looking at the ceiling.”

The main feeling towards the family is pity.

– Does Ignatiev feel happy? (No, he doesn’t feel it. Because of this, he doesn’t sleep at night. Somewhere gardens are growing, seas are rustling, cities are being built - Ignatiev feels like their owner, but... he has to take care of his family.)

And yet, in his dreams, he imagines himself as the “ruler of the world” and the “good king.”

– Who is Ignatiev’s constant nighttime girlfriend? Who is always next to him? (Melancholy. She comes to the hero every night.)

Tolstaya uses a metaphorical paraphrase, calling melancholy “a sad nurse for a hopeless patient.” (Students find and read the quote: “Every night Ignatiev experienced melancholy. Heavy, vague, with her head bowed, she sat on the edge of the bed and took her hand - a sad nurse to a hopeless patient. They remained silent for hours, hand in hand.”.)

Every night “Ignatiev was silent, hand in hand, with melancholy.” It even seems to him that “longing is coming to the cities.” Now “melancholy moved closer to him, waved its ghostly sleeve...”.

– What pictures does melancholy show to a suffering person? (Ignatiev represents distant ships, sailors, native women, a captain; an endless rocky desert with a “measuringly stepping camel” - represents the places where he could have been if...

And more often than others he sees “the unfaithful, unsteady, evasive Anastasia.”)

– “Unfaithful, unsteady, evasive”... Is this a positive or negative characteristic? (Negative, of course.)

Ignatiev understands that she is not worth his love, but still loves her.

Now we are dramatizing a fragment of the story “Ignatiev and a friend in a cellar.” (Students read by role from the words After work, Ignatiev did not immediately go home, but drank beer with a friend in the cellar, ending the dialogue:
– And what is his name?
– N.)

– What is Ignatiev complaining about to his school friend? (For despair, for melancholy. “I’m in despair. I’m just in despair.” Three times he repeats the word yearning.)

– Read what Ignatiev says about his wife. (“The wife is a saint. She quit her job and sits with Valera... She just gives her all. She’s all black.”)

– What do these words say? (Ignatiev sympathizes with his wife, understands how difficult it is for her.)

- What does he say about his son? (“He’s sick, sick all the time. His legs can’t walk well. He’s such a small cinder. He’s a little warm. Doctors, injections, he’s afraid of them. He screams. I can’t hear him cry.”)

Again I pay attention to words with diminutive suffixes; students find: legs, small, cinder.

- What is it? cinder?

A pre-prepared student reads an article from Ozhegov’s dictionary:

Cinder. The remains of an unburned candle.

A very expressive word: it seems to the father that the life in his child is slightly warm and is about to burn out.

Ignatiev continues to complain about fate.

(Students find and read the passage: “But just imagine, I’m suffering. The wife is suffering, Valerochka is suffering, and Anastasia is probably suffering too... And we all torture each other.”.)

I draw your attention to the syntax: Ignatiev speaks about his suffering in a separate sentence, and about the suffering of his wife, son, Anastasia - in another.

– Who, in his opinion, suffers the most? (That’s why he speaks first of all about his experiences.)

– What do you think? (The wife experiences the most excruciating suffering. She does not sleep at night. She is forced to leave her job. She has stopped taking care of herself: “Ignatiev looked at the growing blackness of her hair - she had not pretended to be blonde for a long time...”)

Let me explain: Valerik suffers, but less. Young children do not know how to get sick because, unlike adults, they do not know that a serious illness can result in death. Temporary relief - and the child is cheerful and cheerful again.

– What can you say about Ignatiev’s suffering? (He suffers the least of all, does not sit with a sick child, can be distracted at work, in communication with a friend; the only thing he does is read “Turnip” to his son in the evenings.)

A friend ironically calls Ignatiev a “world sufferer,” a “woman” who revels in “invented torment.”

Ignatiev says about himself: “I am sick...”.

- What is he sick with? (Ignatiev considers his melancholy to be a disease.)

Yes, not only Ignatiev and his friend are sitting in the beer cellar, but also melancholy - it’s not for nothing that she “hurried” after our hero... There was no way to get rid of her, the doorman allowed her into the cellar.

And Ignatiev is tired of pitying, suffering and compassion - pity, compassion, mercy seem to him to be a disease.

– The hero dreams of becoming a different person. What kind? (“...I’ll cheer up. I’ll forget Anastasia, I’ll earn a lot of money, I’ll take Valera to the south... I’ll renovate the apartment...”)

– What solution does your friend suggest? (He believes that Ignatiev needs to have an operation. “The diseased organ needs to be amputated. Like the appendix.”)

– What does a school friend say about the results of the operation? What arguments does it give in its favor? (“1. Mental abilities are unusually sharpened. 2. Willpower grows. 3. All idiotic, fruitless doubts completely cease. 4. Harmony of the body and... uh... brain. The intellect shines like a spotlight.")

And the last thing that is especially convincing is that there are already people who have undergone surgery: “... there is one friend - I studied with him at the institute. He has become a big man."

This means that by removing this unnecessary organ, you can even become a “bigger man.”

-What kind of organ is this? Does a friend call him? (No, he doesn’t name it. He says: “Dogs don’t have it. They have reflexes. Pavlov’s teaching.”)

Let's remember the pronoun her. Consequently, an organ will be amputated, and this organ will not He (brain), not it (heart) and she .

– How does Ignatiev feel about car enthusiasts? (He doesn’t like them. “Someone in a Zhiguli deliberately drove through a puddle, doused Ignatiev with a muddy wave, splashed his trousers. This happened to Ignatiev often.”)

– Why does this happen? (Because of bad upbringing. The one who travels boasts of his wealth in front of the one who goes, and not only boasts, but also wants to humiliate and offend the person.)

The word plays an important role here on purpose. On purpose- means specifically to offend, to laugh at the pedestrian. But you can go around the puddle. By the way, in Europe they don’t behave like this on the roads. Drivers stop to allow people walking to cross the street.

– What thoughts come to Ignatiev’s head? (“...I’ll buy a car, I’ll douse everyone myself. I’ll take revenge for the humiliation of the indifferent.”)

As you can see, the rudeness of some gives rise to the anger and rudeness of others - it’s like a chain reaction.

- But how can we see that Ignatiev is still not a boor, not an insolent person? (He “was ashamed of his low thoughts and shook his head. I’m completely sick.”)

An important word for understanding the character of the hero is ashamed. Choose a synonym for the word shame. (Students easily find the closest synonym - conscience.)

Yes, it’s shameful – it’s ashamed, awkward, inconvenient in front of others.

A dark man, who taps a coin on the glass of a pay phone while waiting for his turn, irritably says to the boy: “You have to have a conscience.” This is how the theme of conscience begins to sound in the story.

– Were you able to get through to Anastasia Ignatiev? (No, I couldn’t. “...the long beeps did not find a response, they disappeared into the cold rain, in the cold city, under the low cold clouds.”)

Tolstaya repeats the word three times cold. Repetition here is a means of expressiveness and emotionality. It is needed to show how uncomfortable the hero feels in his hometown - he, a pedestrian, feels cold among the passengers. He has a conscience and mercy. He greeted the “dark, short man” emerging from a pay phone booth with tears in his eyes with a “sympathetic smile.”

Reading by role of the episode “Ignatiev with the “big man””(from the words “N. accepted in a week...” ending with the words “The audience is over”).

– A tear-stained woman comes out of the big man’s office. What does this artistic detail say? (N. is a big boss. He refused the woman some request, so she comes out in tears.)

– Why was Ignatiev’s friend nervous when talking to a friend from the institute? (N. – “a significant person.” He works in a reputable institution. “A table, a jacket, a gold pen in his pocket” - in a word, a boss.)

That’s right, any mere mortal is timid before “rulers and judges,” especially since they most often, without even understanding the essence of the matter, refuse these mere mortals.

– What did N. say about the operation? (“...Quickly, painlessly, I’m satisfied... they pull it out, extract it.”)

- Do you know what it is? extract? (A pre-prepared student reads: Extract. Same as hood.- Ozhegov).

Extract- means extracting, pulling out individual components from the whole.

– Why was the conversation with N. so short? (N. is a big boss, a business man. He has no time. When answering a question, he looks at his watch.)

– What clericalisms are found in this short episode? (“I acted like this...”, “not to advertise”, “time storage”, “the audience is over.”)

These words emanate a cemetery cold. Time storage– Tolstoy’s original neologism. For this situation - an extremely expressive word. Bosses of this rank believe that every minute of their life is precious and unique, and they try to get rid of annoying visitors as quickly as possible.

- How can we see that N. is a very wealthy person? (He has a “golden fountain pen”, “massive golden time storage”, an expensive strap.)

– As we have seen, melancholy accompanies Ignatiev everywhere as his constant companion. Did she go with Ignatiev to the office of a “significant person”? (No, she didn’t. There’s no place for her in a reputable institution with a lot of signs and strong doors. And bosses don’t need to know what melancholy is.)

Longing returns to Ignatiev after the audience. (Students find the quote: “The melancholy was creeping in again, my evening friend. She looked out from behind a drainpipe, ran across the wet pavement, walked, mingling with the crowd, constantly watching, waiting for Ignatiev to be left alone.”.)

– What kind of life does your friend promise to Ignatiev after the operation? (“A healthy, fulfilling life, not chicken digging! Career. Success. Sports. Women. Away with complexes, away with tediousness! Look at yourself: who do you look like? A whiner. A coward! Be a man, Ignatiev! A man! Then you will women will love you. And so – who are you? A rag!”)

– The mention of women again makes Ignatiev remember Anastasia. Did she consider Ignatiev a man? (I didn’t think so. “It’s doubtful. That you. Ignatiev. Was. A man. Because men. They. Are. Decisive.”)

– What symbolic meaning did his father’s “tea-colored silk shirt with short sleeves” have for Ignatiev? (Connection with the past, with the father. First, Ignatiev the father wore it, then Ignatiev the son: “a good thing, without demolition; he got married in it, and met Valerik from the maternity hospital.”)

- Why did Ignatiev burn this shirt? (Because Anastasia wanted it that way.)

Submitting to her, Ignatiev burned his blood ties with the past (parents) and present (wife and son).

The shirt should be treasured as a memory, but the hero neglected this memory.

– Who took possession of the ashes from the burned shirt? (Melancholy. “Ignatiev burned his father’s tea shirt - its ashes sprinkle the bed at night, his melancholy sprinkles him in handfuls, quietly sows through his half-opened fist.”)

– Anastasia considers Ignatiev weak. He agrees to undergo surgery to become stronger. Why does he need strength? (“He will lasso... Anastasia. He will lift the sallow, drooping face of his dear, exhausted wife... Smile too, little Valerik. Your legs will get stronger, and the glands will pass, for daddy loves you, a pale city potato sprout. Dad will become rich, with fountain pens. He will call expensive doctors with gold glasses...")

- Ignatiev believes that he will become a different person - “contradictions will not tear him apart,” he will forget “about shameful doubts.” What comparisons does the writer use when depicting the “new” Ignatiev? (“Slim as cedar, strong as steel.”)

The last comparison is “cold”. Steel is not only hard, but also cold.

– The theme of conscience is continued in this part. Who is she related to? (With Anastasia. She says “shameless words”, she “smiles a shameless smile.”)

I draw your attention to the landscape in the next part. Students read:

The summer morning chirped through the kitchen window. Watering machines sprayed a brief coolness like rainbow fans, and living things squeaked and jumped in the tangled clumps of trees. Behind me, a half-asleep night could be seen through the muslin, whispers of melancholy, misty pictures of trouble, the measured splash of waves on a dim deserted shore, low, low clouds..

I pay attention to the word rainbow. Before the operation, Ignatiev had bright dreams of future rebirth.

Anyone before surgery experiences fear; the gaze becomes especially intent, as if the person is seeing everything for the last time.

– What does Ignatiev notice? (“The haggard face of his wife,” he wants to “caress the strands of hair of the dear mummy.”)

– Why does Ignatiev compare his wife to a mummy? (She was dried up from suffering, sleepless nights, constant anxiety for the child’s life.)

And again - once again! – Ignatiev mentally promises his wife to make Valerik happy. The son will be the ruler of the “earthly cup.”

In the queue among the people waiting for surgery, Ignatiev notices a nervous blond man.

- How can you see that he is also worried and afraid? (He is “pathetic”, “with a shifty gaze”, bites his nails and bites off hangnails. “In front of the door to the office he howled quietly, felt his pockets, stepped over the threshold. Pathetic, pathetic, insignificant!”)

To somehow calm himself down, Ignatiev looks at posters with instructive medical stories.

– Why was Ignatiev interested in Gleb’s story? (He suffered because of a bad tooth, but the doctor “pulled out the tooth and threw it away” - Gleb felt happy again.)

Ignatiev took this story as another argument in favor of the operation.

Dramatization of the episode “Ignatiev’s conversation with the nurse”(from the words “I heard the sound of a gurney behind me...” to the words “The nurse laughed, picked up the IV, and left”).

– What did Ignatiev learn from the nurse? (What her not only extracted, but also transplanted. But people usually do not survive and die from heart attacks: “They didn’t know that she for such a thing - and suddenly here - give them a transplant.")

“We see the doctor’s office door swing open. Whom does Ignatiev follow with an “enchanted gaze”? (Blonde. He walked out with a “chic step”, “arrogant, going ahead. Superman, dream, ideal, athlete, winner!”.)

One more step - and Ignatiev will also become like this.

– What does our hero pay attention to in Professor Ivanov’s office? (“A chair like a dentist’s, an anesthesia machine with two silver cylinders, a pressure gauge. Plastic model cars, porcelain birds.”)

There is nothing living in this office, only dead things.

– Who is the north wind compared to? (With the “indifferent executioner.”)

– Why do you think this comparison is made? (The doctor plays the role of executioner in this office.)

– What surprised Ignatiev when the professor raised his head? (“He had no eyes. From his empty eye sockets there was a breath of black abyss into nowhere, an underground passage, to the outskirts of the dead seas of darkness.”)

Ignatiev came to this operation of his own free will, but feels uncomfortable among dead things. The doctor's empty eye sockets foreshadow the "dead seas of darkness." It seems to our hero that “a crack has run through his trembling heart”, that “anxiety is running like a draft” in his heart.

Therefore, he asks a rhetorical question: “Living, are you?..”. But there is nowhere to retreat.

Reading the fragment “Operation” by role(from the words “The Assyrian once again gave me a look...”, ending with the words “Ringing in the ears, darkness, ringing, nothingness”).

– What did Ignatiev see at the very beginning of anesthesia? (“...how his devoted friend clung to the window, saying goodbye, sobbing, obscuring the white light, sadness.”)

It follows from this that Ignatiev said goodbye to melancholy forever. “And the living thing gasped,” - he, like the melancholy, was also betrayed.

This artistic image alive passes, like melancholy, through the entire story. By deciding to undergo an operation, Ignatiev betrays not only melancholy, but also all living things.

– What does “Anastasia’s wild, sorrowful cry” mean? (Even if she has a “shameless smile”, “shameless words”, even Anastasia is against this operation.)

– Ignatiev repeats the word five times it's a pity. Who does he feel sorry for? (It’s a pity for those who remain. The last person he sees before losing consciousness is his son Valerik. He “raised his hand, something was clutched in his fist, the wind was tearing his hair...”)

Dramatization of the last fragment “After the operation” (from the words “Ignatiev - Ignatiev?” to the end of the story).

– Re-read the first sentence (“Ignatiev – Ignatiev? – slowly surfaced from the bottom, parting the soft dark rags with his head, “it was a fabric lake.”)

– Why is the hero’s surname repeated twice? (The first time the surname sounds like a statement, the second - like a question. The writer herself is not sure whether Ignatiev woke up in the chair. Maybe a completely different one?)

– Has Ignatiev changed? (Yes, he has changed a lot.)

– What changed first of all? (Manners, vocabulary.)

First of all, vocabulary. A mass appeared vulgarisms.(The student explains that these are vulgar, rude, obscene expressions.) Students find them: screw it, screw it(instead of go), no fools, go nuts, staring contest, in awe, scratched(instead of went), wow, ladies, they're slandering(instead of walk), cool, no bullshit, no money, no nonsense.

If earlier the hero expressed his thoughts and feelings in correct, literary language, now mainly in words of a colloquial style. Students find: through connections, not weakly, I cheated, I’ll shake out the money, boss(instead of doctor), in hell, high five, come on(instead of Now), Nastya, nischnula, half-baked, give it to the paw, everything is fine; Well, this is finally the finish line.

Feeling like a significant person, Ignatiev introduces into his speech and clericalism. Students read: write where it should be, signal, provide boarding.

The hero's depressing familiarity is especially terrifying. (The student explains that familiarity, according to Ozhegov, is inappropriate swagger, excessive ease.)

– How does he address Professor Ivanov, who performed the operation at the personal request of Ignatiev himself? (Doc, chief, beard. “What, chief, have you started a peeping contest?”)

This person is trying to be original, coming up with what he thinks are witty jokes. (Students read: “A fool loves red”, “Hold your tail like a gun”, “Be healthy, don’t cough”.)

In fact, these are stereotyped, banal expressions that have already become firmly established in the spoken language. Verbal stamps.

We remember what plans Ignatiev made for the future before the operation: to earn a lot of money, to cure Valerik, to give rest to his exhausted wife.

– Are his plans changing? (Yes, they are changing. He outlines a three-point program of action: 1. “Hurry up to Nastya. It’s gone!” 2. Write a complaint that doctor Ivanov takes bribes, although, as we remember, he gave it himself. 3. Define a “bastard” in a boarding school – “unsanitary conditions, you understand.”)

Please note that the new Ignatiev does not even remember his wife - she, “a lake frozen to the bottom”, has no place in Ignatiev’s new life, just as there is no place for his son - a “little cucumber”, a “potato sprout”, who suddenly turned into “ “bastard,” and it is no longer possible to live with him under the same roof.

– Who has the respectable Ignatiev turned into? (A boor, an insolent, an impudent, a scoundrel, for whom nothing is sacred.)

– So what was Ignatiev’s amputation? Why did he become a scoundrel? I asked you to prepare a sign at home. Write on it what was extracted from our hero. (Students raise signs.)

We come to a general conclusion: Ignatiev was amputated soul.

– Try to prove it with text. (Students read: 1. “In dogs her No. They have reflexes. Pavlov's teaching." 2. “Harmony of the body and uh... brain”.)

Indeed, it is generally believed that having a soul is the prerogative of humans, but not of animals.

– What should be the word in the phrase “harmony of the body and...”? (“Harmony of body and soul.”)

A student – ​​an expert in the Russian language – reads an extract from the dictionary of phraseological units:

Soul and body - entirely, with the whole being, completely, completely, in all respects.

- Let's talk about the word now soul. What does it mean?

Experts answer:

Ozhegov's Dictionary:

Soul. General. The inner, psychological world of a person, his consciousness.

Dahl's Dictionary:

Soul. An immortal spiritual being, gifted with reason and will. Mental and spiritual qualities of a person, conscience, inner feeling.

Dictionary of synonyms for Alexandrova:

Soul– heart, spiritual (or inner) world.

As you can see, Dahl believed that the soul is, first of all, conscience; Alexandrova – that the soul is the heart.

Thanks to these interpretations, the story becomes clearer.

Ignatiev, who has lost his soul, no longer has either a heart or a conscience.

I asked experts to write down words with roots from dictionaries -shower- . Let's listen to those that positively characterize a person. The expert reads:

Soulful(Ozhegov) - full of sincere friendliness.

Soulfulness(Alexandrova) – 1. responsiveness; 2. sincerity.

Darling(Ozhegov) - about a pleasant, attractive person.

Let me explain that the words spirit And soul have the same root, although they differ in meaning. Alternation x – w .

Spiritualized(Ozhegov) - imbued with sublime feeling.

Spiritualize(Ozhegov) – to inspire, fill with high content, meaning, internally ennoble.

Animate(Ozhegov) – inspire, give spiritual strength.

Get animated(Ozhegov) - to be inspired, to feel a surge of mental strength.

Animation(Ozhegov) - uplifting spirit.

soul-loving(Dahl) - humane.

Soul-saving(Dahl).

Executor(Dahl) - executor of the last will of the deceased.

Welcoming(a student who worked with an etymological dictionary tells about the history of this word.) Actually the Russian word goes back to cheerful, which is formed using a connecting vowel O by addition glad- And stuffy (compare dialect stuffy– “mentally”), is a derivative with the suffix -n- from soul.

Soul-man(Dahl) – direct and good-natured.

Spirit(Ozhegov) - consciousness, thinking, mental abilities, that which encourages action, activity.

Clergy are the servants of the church. Orthodox, Catholic, Muslim clergy. The clergy addresses first of all the human soul.

Confessor(Ozhegov) - a priest who takes confession from someone.

Spiritual(Ozhegov) – relating to mental activity, to the realm of the spirit. Spiritual interests.

Spiritual(Dahl) – moral, moral, internal, spiritual.

And this is far from a complete list of root words -shower- .

Now let's listen to another expert. He will read words with the same root that negatively characterize a person.

Soullessness(Alexandrova) - heartlessness.

Soulless(Ozhegov) – without a sympathetic, lively attitude towards someone or anything; heartless.

Soulless(Dahl) - not gifted with a human soul; soulless, dead, deceased or murdered; acting as if there was no human soul in him, insensitive to the suffering of others, callous, cold, selfish.

I draw your attention to this word. Dahl seemed to write about the “new” Ignatiev, as he appeared after the operation.

Indifferent(Ozhegov) - indifferent, indifferent, devoid of interest in anything, and also expressing indifference, indifference.

Indifferent(Alexandrova) - insensitive, insensitive, cold, icy, chilled.

Murderer(Ozhegov) - killer, villain.

choke(Ozhegov) - kill by squeezing the throat with force.

Strangler(Ozhegov) - the one who strangles.

Mentally harmful(Dahl).

soul-destroying(Dahl).

Darling(Dahl) - a pitiful or low soul.

Having lost his soul, Ignatiev became a soulless man, lost his conscience, i.e. became immoral. And the immoral is the unscrupulous. This is how the story logically ends theme of conscience.

– What is the grammatical category in the Russian language, where the words-terms also have a root -shower- ?(The grammatical category of animateness - inanimateness. Animated nouns include the names of living beings, and inanimate nouns include words denoting objects, not living beings.)

After the operation, Ignatiev becomes an inanimate person - he has no soul. Tatyana Tolstaya convincingly shows that there can be inanimate people, arrogant, boorish, indifferent to the misfortune of others. But there is animate things. For example, books. Writers died long ago, but their souls, thoughts, feelings reach us like the light of distant stars.

Russian literature has always addressed the soul, because the soul is the main thing without which a person cannot exist.

A.S. Pushkin:

No, I won't all die...
Soul in the treasured lyre
My ashes will survive and decay will escape.

(Monument)

And the poet is right: the soul that expressed itself in wonderful poetry continues to live in the memory of posterity.

M.Yu. Lermontov bitterly stated the fact:

The world did not understand my soul.
He doesn't need a soul.

Sergei Yesenin once came to a conclusion that horrified him:

I'm scared - because the soul is passing,
Like youth and like love.

(Farewell to Mariengof)

The soul passes... It doesn’t even need to be amputated. Over the years, people, unfortunately, become colder and callous.

Young Vladimir Mayakovsky loved people so much that he wanted to give them his immortal soul:

To you I
I'll pull out your soul,
I’ll trample it so it’s big! –
and I will give the bloody one as a banner.

(A cloud in pants)

S.Ya. Marshak stated:

Everything that a person touches
Illuminated by his living soul.

(Everything that a person touches...)

ON THE. Zabolotsky called on everyone:

Don't let your soul be lazy!
So as not to pound water in a mortar,
The soul must work
And day and night, and day and night!

(Don't let your soul be lazy...)

All the work of the greatest poet Nikolai Mikhailovich Rubtsov is addressed to the soul - this is the secret of the enduring love of many generations of readers for him.

In the poem “The Soul Keeps,” the poet claims that it is “the soul... that keeps all the beauty of bygone times.”

In another masterpiece, “In the Autumn Forest,” he asks readers:

Believe me, I am pure at heart...
And one more quote:
And with all my soul, which I don’t feel sorry for
Drown everything in the mysterious and sweet,
Light sadness takes over,
How moonlight takes over the world.

(Night at home)

Sadness takes over the soul. Light sadness. Wasn’t that how sadness took hold of Ignatiev’s soul - and that’s why the hero, without regret, underwent surgery? He immediately got rid of not only melancholy, but also contradictions, doubts, pity, compassion, and it is precisely these qualities that make a person a Human. By deciding to undergo an operation, he signed his own death warrant, turning into an inanimate person - a living dead man.

– The whole story is about Ignatiev. Why do you think the last part, “After the Surgery,” is the shortest, just one page?

After the students’ answers, I summarize: the restless, hesitant, doubting Ignatiev was interesting to Tatyana Tolstoy, as well as to you and me. By his own will, he lost his soul (and we remember the synonyms - conscience, heart), he ceases to occupy the writer, and she leaves him. And so it is clear that Ignatiev will not accomplish anything significant in life and will go to any goal over corpses, regardless of anyone, pushing everyone away with his elbows.

– What do you think is the future fate of the hero? (He will earn a lot of money, buy a car and, driving through puddles, will douse passers-by, just as he was doused. Divorce his wife, send his son to a boarding school for the disabled and marry Anastasia - now he is as unscrupulous as she. Although, perhaps, he will no longer be able to make any woman truly happy: after all, Anastasia has already turned into Nastya for Ignatiev. Perhaps she will become an important dignitary, like that “big man” to whom the main character went to ask for advice.)

– Why did N. become the boss after the amputation of his soul? (Yes, because he stopped paying attention to the needs of people, their suffering, their troubles.)

Our famous TV journalist V.V. Posner once said a wonderful phrase: “For some reason, a person, as soon as he becomes a boss, immediately ceases to be a person.”

– What is easier – to gain a soul or to lose it? (It’s easier to lose. Those who have been operated on leave the doctor’s office on their own. And those who have had donor souls transplanted suffer deeply. They are taken on gurneys: “... two women in white coats carried a writhing, nameless body, all covered in dried bloody bandages - and the face , and the chest - only the mouth is a black, mooing failure...”)

– Could what happened in the story happen in real life? (No, this is fiction.)

Therefore, “A Blank Slate” is not just a story, but a fantastic story. I draw your attention to the epigraph (words by Bernard Shaw). Of course, our medicine has not yet reached such a level as to extract the soul. But there are so many soulless people nearby, inanimate people, subhumans - it is their fault that we live so difficult and meagerly.

– Why didn’t Tolstaya ever say anywhere in the story which organ should be amputated? (To make it more interesting to read. The reader must draw his own conclusions.)

This artistic technique is called reticence. Innuendo is an incomplete statement, suppression of something (in a story.)

It remains to talk about the title of the work.

- How do you understand it? (The operated Ignatiev at the post office asks the girl for a blank sheet.)

– What is he going to write? (Complaint. “Signalize who is supposed to know that doctor Ivanov takes bribes.”)

And this is the first thing a person is going to do after becoming Superman...

A blank sheet... On it you can write “I remember a wonderful moment...”; you can draw a staff of music, and after some time play the “Moonlight Sonata” from the sheet; you can deduce the theory of relativity or a system of chemical elements - and you can concoct an evil libel, a complaint, a vile anonymous letter, from which the fragile human heart will shudder and burst.

A clean slate... Clean for now. But letters, notes, and numbers will definitely appear on it. And the main thing is not what is written, but who wrote and how he wrote: either a person with an open soul, or a creature who has already managed to ruin his soul.

And I would like to end the lesson with a wonderful poem by Adeline Adalis:

No, we are not born with a soul:
Through life we ​​develop a soul.
This small amendment
I will destroy the eternal illusion, -
Fears of antiquity and newness -
Don’t believe the fiction about mortality:
We were born mortals,
To earn immortality.

Homework . Write out 15 phraseological units with the word from the phraseological dictionary soul(there are about a hundred of them in the dictionary).

Literature

1. Fat Tatiana. Okkervil River. M., 2002.

2. Alexandrova Z.E.. Dictionary of synonyms of the Russian language. M., 1968.

3. Dal V.I.. Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language. M., 2002.

4. Ozhegov S.I.. Dictionary of the Russian language. M., 1984.

5. Proverbs of the Russian people. Collection of Vladimir Dahl. In 2 vols. Volume I. M., 1984.

6. Phraseological dictionary of the Russian language, edited by Molotkov. M., 1978.

7. Shansky N.M.. Brief etymological dictionary of the Russian language. M., 1971.

Blank slate, tell me about
What have I not told the people before?
How to share Golgotha ​​with Christ,
How not to bow to the freak prince.

How to honor honor for life,
Don't exchange grief for snotty behavior.
How can we survive and survive?
Seeing the vile...

https://www.site/poetry/1121329

Blank sheet of paper...

Blank sheet of paper
lies on the table,
Where is the inspiration?
Why is it not in a hurry?

I'll open the curtains
I'll look at the sky
Thoughts are like shackles
The whole body was shackled.

Am I strong enough?
The heart thirsts for will.
I'll give him freedom
If only there was no pain.

https://www.site/poetry/14356

Blank slates from a past life...

Children's dreams shattered
In which you and I were.
The mirror of all dreams broke,
And the lines of secret prose were erased.

And all sorrows were forgotten,
Which maybe you didn't know.
Blank sheets opened up.
“In a new way, yourself, let’s live!”

Then I needed you...

https://www.site/poetry/124289

Blank sheet in my hand

A blank sheet of paper is in my hand, and there is a pen in my pocket.
It's a rainy day, but the cloud won't cover me
Reflections in the Neva, all the bridges with palaces
Birds flying in the distance and temples with Kupala

I never get tired of looking at the creators of creation
Glory to old Peter for...

https://www.site/poetry/163952

Blank sheet

The white leaf smells fresh,
Pristine purity.
He is inexperienced, sinless.
There is still peace in it.

There is no pain or passion in him,
No sadness, no resentment.
The leaf may even be happy,
Which is quietly silent.

But the handle has already crept up.
In it...

https://www.site/poetry/1129436

Blank sheet

I want to talk to someone...you're thinking about no one...not everyone can understand you, because questions always arise in our heads exactly when we don't expect it, and it happens that the answers are right next to the questions...if you start a conversation with someone ...

https://www.site/poetry/194774

Sketch of a Blank Slate

But to admit means to understand, and no one in the world can understand, and in the end they simply agree with you. II Clean sheet- these are all kinds of boundaries and spaces. Yes! As you noticed, I repeated myself. But it's worth nothing, because it's an inglorious end for this... gray purring cat, with narrowed eyes, lazily opening them at the crackle of the fireplace. IV And here, before you sheet. It gives you endless possibilities, do whatever you want! Write poetry, write a story, an essay, a memoir, create a new formula for...

“Clean Water” - Search for solutions in the field of providing the population with clean water. Water is supplied in standard 5-6 liter bottles. Works in automatic mode. Water purification technology. Service card. The water purification system is based on membrane technology. Water is supplied in standard bottles of 5-19 liters.

“External structure of a leaf” - Questions for review. Leaf venation. Explain the difference between sessile and petiolate leaves. What venation is characteristic of dicotyledonous plants? Modified leaves. What venation is typical for monocotyledonous plants? Name the main parts of the sheet. In monocotyledonous plants, the root system is _______, leaf venation is ___________, ____________.

"Ferenz Liszt" - Liszt is considered a seminal figure in the history of music. Hungarian pianist and composer (1811–1886). And in 1847 F. Liszt undertook a farewell concert tour. In 1844 Liszt became bandmaster at the ducal court in Weimar. Most of the composer's piano heritage is transcriptions and paraphrases of music by other authors.

“Möbius Strip” - Möbius is one of the founders of modern topology. Art and technology. The Mobius strip is a symbol of mathematics, Which serves as the crown of the highest wisdom... An incredible project of a new library in Astana, Kazakhstan. This sculpture is made up of many tin cans. Director of the Leipzig Astronomical Observatory, A. Möbius was a versatile scientist.

“Essay on Leaves” - My Autumn. I. Turgenev. Linden Poplar Rowan Maple Lilac Oak. Movement of leaves. What colors are the leaves? Bunches of rowan. I. Bunin. Bronze Herbal Brown Light Green Malachite Scarlet. Essay topics. What are the leaves whispering about? Which trees have lost their leaves? Autumn sounds. But the pond has already frozen... Red. Yellow Orange Red Green Lemon Orange.

“Pure water lesson” - Discussion on the topic of the lesson. Leonardo da Vinci. Clean water lesson. Tasks: Cinquain on the topic “Clean Water”. Organizational moment. Discussion of measures to improve the ecological water environment of the region. Lesson summary: compiling a syncwine. Water Rain, spring Flows, freezes, evaporates Source of life Liquid.

(Tambov)

The Dream of the Soul in Tatyana Tolstoy’s story “Clean Slate”

The plot of Tatyana Tolstoy’s story “A Blank Slate” is typical of the “era of the nineties”: Ignatiev, exhausted by everyday troubles, worries and longing for the unrealizable, decides to undergo an operation to remove the suffering soul, wanting to become powerful in this world. The result is predictable: he turns into one of those impersonal, soulless people about whom Yevgeny Zamyatin wrote in the science fiction novel “We.”

By losing the ability to compassion, the hero loses the main component of human happiness - the ability to make others happy, his neighbors and those far away.

Soulless people really walk the earth. Literally. It has become fashionable to write about zombies now. New details on this topic are appearing in newspapers and magazines. But even earlier, Sergei Yesenin remarked:

“I’m scared - because the soul is passing,

Like youth and like love."

The soul passes. You don’t even need to “extract” it.

People often become colder and callous over the years.

Tatyana Tolstaya in her work asks the most important questions:

What happens to the soul?

In what depths, in what abysses does she hide?

Where does it go or how is it transformed, what does this eternal longing for truth, goodness, beauty turn into?

Tatyana Tolstaya knows that there are no clear answers to these questions. To stage them, she uses (following Zamyatin) the techniques of fiction.

Having presented her hero, who easily parted with his soul, in a new capacity with a blank sheet of paper in his hands, the writer just as easily parted with him, without giving an answer as to how one can overcome such a terrifying “cleaning of souls” that become indifferent. The hero became a blank slate. One could write on it:

“And with all my soul, which I don’t feel sorry for

Drown everything in the mysterious and sweet,

Light sadness takes over,

How moonlight takes over the world."

Ignatiev’s soul was overcome by melancholy. Melancholy, doubts, pity, compassion - this is the way of existence of the soul in a person, because it is a “dweller of other places.” Ignatiev became faint-hearted and could not stand her presence in himself. By deciding to have the operation, he signed his own death warrant - he lost his immortal soul, he lost everything (but he thought that he had gained everything!).

Though weak, but alive, doubtful, but full of reverent fatherly love and tenderness (“he jumped with a push and rushed through the door to the barred crib”), restless, but pitying his wife and admiring her (“The wife is a saint”), Ignatiev was interesting auto RU.

Having ceased to suffer, he ceased to occupy the writer. Everyone knows what a soulless person he is.

On his blank sheet of paper he will write a complaint - the first thing he was going to do after the operation. And Tosca will never come to him again, sit on the edge of his bed, or take his hand. Ignatiev will not feel how from the depths, from the abyss, “the Living One comes out of the dugouts somewhere.” From now on, his destiny is loneliness and emptiness. Everyone leaves him - both the author and the reader, since he is now a dead man, “an empty, hollow body.”

What did Tatyana Tolstaya want to tell us? Why is she talking about what is already known? This is how we see it.

In the Russian language, phrases have been established: “to destroy your soul”, “to save your soul”, that is, a person, being an earthly and mortal being, has the power to save or destroy his immortal unearthly soul.

There are five men (one of them a boy) and five women in the story. Everyone is unhappy, especially women. The first is Ignatiev’s wife. The second is Anastasia, his beloved. The third is his friend's divorced wife. The fourth one left the office of the big boss in tears, who was the first to get rid of the soul. The fifth listens into the telephone receiver to the entreaties of a dark-skinned man whose “entire living space is covered in carpets.”

“Woman”, “wife” is the soul. But Tatyana Tolstaya never says this word. Creates a taboo. (Doesn't want to say it in vain?)

How does the story begin? - “The wife is sleeping.”

Ignatiev's soul sleeps. She is sick and weak. It seems that Tatyana Tolstaya is talking about her, describing Ignatiev’s wife and child: “exhausted,” “weak sprout,” “little cinder.” Could Ignatiev become strong and lead his family out of pain and sorrow? It’s unlikely, because it is said: “Whoever doesn’t have it, it will be taken away from him.”

Having removed the soul, Ignatiev immediately decides to get rid of what reminds him of it - its visible embodiment - his loved ones.

Look at the people closest to you. This is the visible embodiment of your invisible soul. How are they next to you? This is the case with you and your soul.

He affirms this idea in his small masterpiece - the story “Blank Slate”.

Notes

1. Thick sheet. With

2. Yesenin with Mariengof (“There is unbridled happiness in friendship...” // Yesenin’s collected works: In 7 volumes. – M.: Nauka, 1996. Vol. 4. Poems not included in the “Collected Poems” - 1996. – C 184-185.

3. Night at home // Collected works in three volumes: T.1. – M.: Terra, 2000. – P. 78.

VALENTINA face
(Poltava)

The title of T. Tolstoy’s story “A Blank Slate” is significant in many ways and evokes certain associations in the modern reader. In particular, it can be associated with the well-known Latin expression tabula rasa, both in its literal meaning - a blank slate where you can write anything you want, and in its figurative meaning - space, emptiness. Indeed, at the end of the story, the hero, who voluntarily changed his inner essence, asks for a “CLEAN letter” in order to “provide a boarding school” for his own son, whom he calls a “miscarriage.” The reader understands that the “blank slate” in the context of the final episode is an important detail, a symbol of the beginning of a new life for the hero, whose soul has disappeared, and in its place an emptiness has formed.

On the other hand, the catchphrase tabula rasa is associated with the works of famous philosophers. Thus, Locke believed that only practice shapes a person, and his mind at birth is a tabula rasa. I. Kant and the American transcendentalists who were guided by him rejected Locke’s indicated thesis. From the point of view of R. Emerson, worthy of the transcendentalists, a person from birth has an understanding of truth and error, good and evil, and these Transcendental ideas are given to a person a priori and come to him in addition to experience. Tatyana Tolstaya makes no direct allusions to these philosophical debates, but in her work the motif of the soul plays an important role, which in the subtext of the story is perceived in the traditions of classical literature

as a battlefield between good and evil, between God and the devil.

The story “A Blank Slate” is divided into seven small fragments, which are closely related to each other. Each fragment is based on episodes of the hero’s internal and external life. However, structurally in the text of the work it is possible to isolate two parts - before the hero’s meeting with the mysterious doctor who “did not have eyes”, and after the meeting with him. The basis of this division is the opposition “living” - “dead”. In the first part of the story, the idea is emphasized that the “Living” tormented the hero: “And the Living cried subtly into his chest until the morning.” “Living” in the context of the work is a symbol of the soul. The word “soul” is never mentioned in the story, however, the leitmotif of its first part is the motif of melancholy, and melancholy, as V.I. Dal points out, is “languor of the soul, painful sadness, mental anxiety.”

In the strange world in which the hero lives, melancholy follows him everywhere. One can even say that the author creates a Personified image of melancholy, which “came” to the hero constantly, with which he was “amazed”: “Hand to hand, Ignatiev was silent with melancholy,” “Melancholy moved closer to him, waved her ghostly sleeves...” “Toska waited, lay in a wide bed, moved closer, gave space to Ignatiev, hugged him, put his head on his chest...”, etc. .

Tosca waves her sleeve like a woman, and these mysterious “waves” contribute to the appearance of strange visions in the hero’s mind. The author of the story gives a collage consisting of the thoughts and visions of the hero: “... locked in his chest, gardens, seas, cities were tossing and turning, their owner was Ignatiev, with him they were playing, with him they were doomed to dissolve into Nothingness.” The phrase “they were born with it” that we underlined recalls the assertion of Kant and other philosophers that man is not a tabula rasa from birth.

The author “includes” the reader in the hero’s stream of consciousness, which makes it possible to significantly expand the context of the work. It is noteworthy that almost all the pictures that are drawn in the mind of a strange hero are of an apocalyptic nature. “Residents, paint the sky in twilight color, sit on the stone thresholds of abandoned houses, damage your hands, lower your heads...”. The mention of lepers, deserted alleys, abandoned hearths, cold ashes, grassy market squares, gloomy landscapes - all this enhances the state of anxiety and melancholy in which the hero finds himself. As if playing with the reader, the author draws a low red moon in the inky sky, and against this background - a howling wolf... In the subtext of this fragment, the well-known phraseological unit “howl from melancholy” is “read”, and the author’s hint is guessed: “howls from melancholy” hero of the story.

The hero's melancholy in the story is motivated by life circumstances - the illness of a child for whom his wife quit her job, as well as internal duality associated with the fact that, in addition to his wife, he also has Anastasia. Ignatiev feels sorry for the sick Valerik, feels sorry for his wife, himself and Anastasia. Thus, the motive of melancholy is closely connected at the beginning of the story with the motive of pity, which intensifies in the further narrative, in particular in the first part, and disappears in the second part, because the soul of the hero disappears, and with it the melancholy.

The peculiarity of the story's chronotope is the connection of different time layers - past and present. In the present in Ignatiev - “little white Valerik - a frail, sickly sprout, pathetic in spasm - rash, glands, dark circles under the eyes”, in the present there is a faithful wife, and next to her in his soul - “unsteady, evasive Anastasia.” The author immerses the reader in the inner world of the hero, who amazes with his gloominess. His “visions” replace each other like footage from a chronicle. They are united by common moods, are fragmentary and arise in the hero’s mind the way miracles appear in fairy tales - with the wave of a magic wand. However, in Tolstoy’s story there is a different “wave” - not of the good sorceress, but of longing.

In the second “vision” there is a string of ships, old sailing ships, Which “are leaving the harbor to God knows where”, because the ropes have become untied. Human life is often compared in literature to a ship setting sail. It is no coincidence that this “vision” appears in the hero’s mind; it is no coincidence that he sees sick children sleeping around the cabin. The stream of his thoughts reflected Ignatiev’s concern for his small, sick son.

The third picture is imbued with oriental and at the same time mystical motifs. Rocky desert, a camel stepping steadily... There is a lot of mystery here. For example, why does frost glisten on a cold rocky plain? Who is he, the Mysterious Horseman, whose mouth “yawns with bottomless pits”, “and deep sorrowful furrows have been drawn on the cheeks of thousands of years of flowing tears”? The motifs of the apocalypse are palpable in these fragments, and the Mysterious Horseman is perceived as a symbol of death. As the author of a work created in the style of postmodernism, Tatyana Tolstaya does not strive to create clear, defined pictures or images. Her descriptions are impressionistic, aimed at creating a certain impression.

In the last, fourth “Vision”, which appeared in the hero’s mind, there are reminiscences and allusions from Gogol’s story “The Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala”. There is the same fragmented perception here as in the previous episodes. Anastasia, as a symbol of the Devil’s temptation, and “will-o’-the-wisps over the swamp bog” stand nearby and are mentioned in the same sentence. “Hot flower”, “red flower”, which “floats”, “blinks”, “flashes”, is associated with the fern flower in Gogol’s story, which promises the hero the fulfillment of his desires. The intertextual connections between the fragment under consideration and Gogol’s work are obvious; they are emphasized by the author with the help of clear reminiscences and allusions. Gogol has “marsh swamps”; in T. Tolstoy - “Swamp bog”, “springy brown hummocks”, fog (“white clouds”), moss. In Gogol, “hundreds of shaggy hands reach out to a flower,” and “ugly monsters” are mentioned. In T. Tolstoy “Shaggy heads stand in moss”. The fragment under consideration combines with Gogol’s text the motive of selling the soul (in Gogol - the devil, in T. Tolstoy - Satan). In general, Ignatiev’s “vision” or dream performs the function of artistic anticipation in the text of the story. After all, the hero of Gogol's story, Petrus Bezrodny, must sacrifice the blood of a baby - the innocent Ivas. This is the demand of evil spirits. Ignatiev in Tolstoy’s story “A Blank Slate” will also make a sacrifice - he will give up the most precious thing he had, including his own son.

So, in the first part of the story, this is his exposition. The leading motive of this part is the motive of melancholy that haunts Ignatiev, who is, in fact, a marginal hero. He is lonely, tired of life. His financial problems are NOT emphasized in the story. However, some details more eloquently indicate that they were, for example, the mention that “his wife sleeps under a torn blanket,” that the hero wears a “tea-colored” shirt that his dad wore, “he got married in it, and met Valerik from the maternity hospital,” went on dates with Anastasia...

The motives stated at the beginning of the work are developed in the subsequent narrative. Ignatiev continues to be haunted by melancholy (“her flat, stupid head popped up here and there”), he still feels sorry for his wife, telling his friend that “she is a saint,” and still thinks about Anastasia. The mention of the famous fairy tale “Turnip” is not accidental in the story, and it is no accident that in the monologues of the characters it is adjacent to the name of the mistress: “And it’s all a lie, if the turnip is populated, you won’t be able to get it out.” I know. Anastasia... You call and call - she’s not at home.” The situation in which Ignatiev finds himself is clearly and definitely outlined. He is faced with a dilemma: either a faithful but exhausted wife, or a beautiful but evasive Anastasia. It is difficult for the hero to make a choice; he does not want and, obviously, cannot refuse either his wife or his mistress. The reader can only guess that he is weak, that he has a job, but the camera is not interested in it, there is no favorite thing, because

it is NOT talked about. And therefore his melancholy is not accidental. Ignatiev realizes that he is a failure.

One can reproach the author for the fact that the character of the main character is not clearly outlined. However, it seems that T. Tolstaya did not strive for such clarity. She creates a conventional text, draws a conventional world in which everything obeys the laws of aesthetic play. The hero of the story plays with life. He makes plans, mentally works out possible options for a future happy life: “I’ll forget Anastasia, I’ll earn a lot of money, I’ll take Valera to the south... Renovate the apartment...”. However, he understands that when all this is achieved, the melancholy will NOT go away from him, that the “living” will continue to torment him.

In the image of Ignatiev, T. Tolstaya creates parodies of a romantic hero - lonely, suffering, misunderstood, focused on his inner worldview. However, the hero of the story lives in a different era than the heroes of romantic works. It was Lermontov’s Pechorin who could come to the sad conclusion that his “soul is spoiled by light,” which, apparently, was a high destiny for him, but he did not guess this destiny. In the context of the romantic era, such a hero was perceived as a tragic figure. Unlike the romantic sufferers, the heroes of T. Tolstoy’s story, in particular Ignatiev and his friend, do not mention the soul. This word is not in their vocabulary. The motive of suffering is given in a reduced, parodic way. The hero does not even think about a high destiny. Reflecting on his character, you involuntarily remember Tatiana Pushkinskoe’s question: “Isn’t he a parody? “The reader understands that Ignatiev’s melancholy and suffering are due to the fact that he does not see a way out of the situation that he himself created. From the point of view of Ignatiev’s friend, he is just a “woman”: “Just think, a world sufferer!” "You revel in your invented torments." It is noteworthy that the phrase "world sufferer" sounds in an ironic context. And although the hero's Nameless friend is the bearer of an everyday average consciousness, his statements confirm the assumption that the image of Ignatiev is a parody of the romantic hero. He cannot change the current situation (there is neither will nor determination for this), and therefore it turns out to be easier for him to change himself. But Ignatiev does NOT choose the path of moral self-improvement, which was close, for example, to many of Tolstoy’s heroes. No, it is easier for him to get rid of the “living” , that is, the soul. “I’ll have an operation..., I’ll buy a car...” The author makes it possible to understand that material wealth will not save a person from suffering.

In the third part of the story, it is no coincidence that Ignatiev witnesses how the dark, short “little man” called “his Anastasia,” whose name was Raisa, as he promised her a heavenly life, from his point of view. “You will live like cheese in butter,” “Yes, my entire living space is covered in carpets!” “- he said, and then left the phone booth with tear-stained eyes and an angry face. But this incident did not stop the hero. He made a decision, although not immediately.

A meeting with classmates of his friend, who had “cut out” or “torn out” “her” (the reader had long ago guessed that we were talking about the soul) as something unnecessary, dead, served as the impetus for making a decision. The hero was not alarmed by the fact that “a tear-stained woman came out of N.’s office,” because his and his friend’s attention was focused on the second - on the gold fountain pens and expensive cognacs, on the luxury that they saw there. The motive of wealth is strengthened in this part of the work. The author gives the concept that this motive in the minds of an ordinary, average person is closely connected with the image of a successful man. In a distorted world, heroes like N. are associated with real men. T. Tolstaya in this case represents another example of a parodic worldview. But the ideal of a real man, familiar to those around Ignatiev, is instilled in him both by his friend and by Anastasia, who drinks “red wine” with others and on whom the “red dress” glows with a “love flower.” The symbolism of color and the mention of “love flower” are not accidental here. All these details echo the motives of temptation, with the episode from Gogol’s story “The Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala” discussed above. “Love flower” is associated with “love potion,” which is a symbol of magical influence on a person’s feelings and actions. Anastasia became the “love flower” for Ignatiev, who says “demonic words” and smiles “a demonic smile.” She tempts like a demon. The ideals of the crowd become ideals for Ignatiev. And in order to fulfill his dream - to get rid of contradictions, “to tame the elusive Anastasia,” to save Valerik, Ignatiev needs to “become rich, with fountain pens.” This clarification - “with fountain pens” - reveals the author’s irony. Ignatiev’s internal monologue also evokes an ironic smile: “Who is this coming, slender as a cedar, strong as steel, with springy steps, knowing no shameful doubts? This is Ignatiev coming. His path is straight, his earnings are high, his gaze is confident, women look after him.”

In the stream of thoughts of the hero, the wife is constantly associated with something dead. So, Ignatiev wanted to “caress the parchment strands of hair, but his hand met only the cold of the sarcophagus.” As a symbol of cold and death, the story several times mentions “rocky frost, the clanking of a lonely camel’s harness, a lake frozen to the bottom,” and “a stiff rider.” The same function is served by the mention that “Osiris is silent.” Note that in Egyptian mythology, Osiris, the god of the productive forces of nature, dies every year and is reborn to a new life. Oriental motifs are also present in the hero’s dreams in how he - “wise, whole, perfect - will ride a white ceremonial elephant into a carpeted gazebo with flower fans.” Yes, when depicting the inner world of the hero, the author does not spare irony. After all, he desires a miracle, an instant transformation that would bring him recognition, fame, and wealth without any effort. A “miracle” happens, the hero changes, but only becomes different from what he imagined himself to be in his dreams. However, he no longer notices or understands this. The instant removal of the “Living” - his soul - made him what he should have been, taking into account his desires and thoughts.

The author of the story freely plays with images of world culture, we invite the reader to solve them. The work is based on the widespread motif in world literature of selling the soul to the devil, Satan, Antichrist, evil spirits, as well as the related motif of Metamorphosis. It is known that, like Christ performing a miracle, the Antichrist imitates the miracles of Christ. Thus, Satan, under the guise of the Assyrians, the “Doctor of Doctors,” imitates the actions of a doctor. After all, a real doctor treats both body and soul. The Assyrian “extracts,” that is, removes the soul. Ignatiev is struck by the fact that “he didn’t have eyes, but he had a look,” “an abyss looked out of his eye sockets,” and since there were no eyes, “the mirror of the soul,” that means there was no soul. The hero is struck by the blue beard of the Assyrians and his cap in the form of a ziggurat. “What kind of Ivanov is he...” - Ignatiev was horrified.” But it was already too late. His “belated doubts” disappeared, and with them, his “betrayed under?? Ugh - melancholy." The hero finds himself in the kingdom of the Antichrist - the kingdom of moral evil. Here “people will be selfish, lovers of money, proud, haughty, slanderous, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unmerciful, untrue to their word..., insolent, pompous, loving pleasure more than God.” According to medieval expression, the Antichrist is the monkey of Christ, his false double. The doctor in Tolstoy's story "Clean Slate" is a false double of the doctor. He puts on gloves not for the sake of sterility, but “So as not to get his hands dirty.” He is rude to his patient when he sarcastically remarks about his soul: “Do you think it’s big?” The author of the story uses a well-known mythological plot, significantly modernizing it.

T. Tolstoy's story “A Blank Slate” is a vivid example of Postmodernist discourse with many inherent features. After all, in the hero’s inner world there is something terrible and unusual; the hero feels internal disharmony. T. Tolstaya emphasizes the conventionality of the depicted world, playing with the reader. The motives of the aesthetic game play a structure-forming role in its story. The game with the reader has different forms of manifestation in the work, which is reflected in the depiction of events on the verge of the real and the surreal. The author “plays” with spatial and temporal images, giving the opportunity to freely move from one time to another, to update information of various kinds, which opens up wide scope for the reader’s imagination. The game is reflected in the use of intertext, mythologies, irony, and the combination of different styles. Thus, the colloquial, reduced, vulgar vocabulary of the degraded hero at the end of the work is a complete contrast in comparison with the vocabulary that is found in his stream of consciousness at the beginning of the story. The hero plays with life, and the author’s aesthetic play with the reader allows him not only to recreate well-known plot motifs and images, but also turns the hero’s tragedy into a farce.

The title of the story “Blank Slate” actualizes the old philosophical debate about what the mind and soul of a person are from birth: tabula rasa or not tabula rasa? Yes, a lot of things are inherent in a person from birth, but his soul continues to remain a battlefield between God and the Devil, Christ and Antichrist. In the case of Ignatiev, the Antichrist won in T. Tolstoy’s story.

Gogol N.V. Collected works: in 7 volumes /N. V. Gogol. - Evenings on a farm near Dikanka /comment. A. Chicherina, N. Stepanova. - M.: Artist. lit., 1984. - T. 1. - 319 p.

Dal V.I. Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language. Modern version. /IN. I. Dal. - M.: EKSMO-Press, 2000. - 736 p.

Myths of the peoples of the world: encyclopedia: in 2 volumes - M.: Sov. encyclopedia, 1991. - T. 1. - 671 p.

Tolstaya T. Clean sheet /T. Tolstaya // Whether you love it or not: stories / T. Fat. - M.: Onyx: OLMA-PRESS, 1997. - P. 154 -175.