Dynamics of the Point of View in B. Pasternak's Novel "Doctor Zhivago"

• Published in: Litera no. 5; pp. 204 - 217
• Main Author: Molodtsov, Aleksey Borisovich
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.05.2023
• ISSN: 2409-8698; 2409-8698
• DOI: 10.25136/2409-8698.2023.5.39548

The subject of this article is the peculiarities of the functioning of the point of view in B. Pasternak's novel "Doctor Zhivago", which implies an analysis of his composition at the macro and micro levels. The field of research also includes the author's word and other forms of author's expression, as well as the correlation of the author's point of view with the point of view of the characters of the work. The purpose of the study is to identify the formative value of the point of view as a compositional device in B. Pasternak's novel "Doctor Zhivago". In the course of the study, the comparative method and methods of theoretical poetics were used to establish the compositional patterns of the work. This article clarifies the established opinion that Yuri Zhivago is the alter ego of B. Pasternak, the lyrical hero of a lyrical novel. During the study of the composition of the novel, we found that it is based on the installation of constantly changing points of view, and the author's word and presence tends to obscurity. As a result, most episodes of the novel "Doctor Zhivago" acquire dramatic dynamics, and the narrative is always indirect, fragmentary and limited by the point of view of one or another character, who together are equal not only with each other, but also with the author's word. A special compositional form are counterpoint episodes, in which several points of view stereoscopically illuminate either different spaces of the same time interval, or the same space at different times, as well as a conditional impersonal point of view located inside the event, as opposed to the author's word, external to it. The results obtained indicate a different degree of authorial expression in the novel "Doctor Zhivago" and other forms of this expression than the lyrical novel suggests. In fact, the drama of "Doctor Zhivago" remains formative, but little studied, which may become the subject of further research.