I. YAKOVLEV CHUVASH STATE PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY BULLETIN

the city of Anuradhapura, stories by I. A. Bunin, “Third Class”, “City of the King of Kings”, image

This article examines the artistic image of the city of Anuradhapura (Republic of Sri Lanka) in the works of the Russian writer I. A. Bunin, who sailed to the island of Ceylon in March 1911. Attention to the studied aspect of the writer’s literary heritage - his depiction of the city of Anuradhapura in the stories of the first half of the 1920s: “Third Class” (1921), “City of the King of Kings” (1924) – determines the relevance of this study and its scientific novelty. The literary image of the ancient Sinhalese capital by Bunin is topographically reliable, which confirms the presence of names of architectural landmarks (the Bronze Palace, Dagoba of Thuparama, the Issurumuniya, Ruanveli and Abhapari), city streets (Sacred Street) and the surrounding area in the artistic fabric of the work “City of the King of Kings”. The writer applies synchronic and diachronic aspects of the description, presenting the history of the city and its foundation in the context of Ceylon legends about the deeds of the kings. Bunin strives to capture the appearance of Anuradhapura, characterizing the contrast of the former splendor of its architectural structures and their present remains, the oldest evidence of luxurious elegance and impeccable urban planning solutions. The diverse plant and animal world of the paradise island, symbolically embodied in the descendant of the sacred Bo tree, which attracts monkeys with its spreading crown, reveals the semantics of color meanings in the poetics of urban space.

Журина Марина Ивановна – кандидат филологических наук, доцент кафедры русской и чувашской филологии и культурологии Чувашского государственного педагогического университета им. И. Я. Яковлева, г. Чебоксары, Россия, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3302-328X, ds52556@chebnet.com