MODELLING FUNCTION OF METAPLOT ABOUT PRODIGAL SON

Abstract

The article is concerned with the problem of determining the variations of the metaplot about the wandering son, well known to readers, from the biblical text, in the space of literary relations. The authors claim that this metaplot can be considered as a kind of archetypal matrix, which is reproduced in various historical and cultural eras in a wide variety of styling. The metaplot about the prodigal son is a universal mythological model of those relations that develop in the process of intergenerational dialogue (dialogue between “fathers” and “children”). In the Russian literary tradition, this model is marked by clearly expressed spiritual and moral features, because if a Western person in his behavior is rational (such a behavioral pattern goes back to Aristotelian understanding of European civilization), then a Russian one is ideally ethical (a similar norm originates in the Platonic philosophy, more precisely – in Platonism, which is an integral element in the Orthodox-Christian system of values). The parable of the prodigal son affirms the importance of independent choice of path of life. It tells not only about the going away from father’s house and the losses that inevitably accompany this process. It also symbolically narrates about gaining new reason to live, which occurs as a result of the transformation of a Child into an Adult, ready to take moral responsibility for the right to choose a path, and not rely on granted conditions of being that are supposed to exist originally. Consequently, the metaplot about the prodigal son includes a certain number of works of Russian literature of various genres, united by a single cultural matrix. This is not just gospel writings, not just a figurative interpretation of an ancient parable. The metaplot about the prodigal son also embraces those texts that develop the problem of the dialogue between “fathers” and “children” at a typological level. The content and main meanings of the symbolic-mythological metaplot cannot always be presented explicitly, in a clearly visible form. They often underlie the structures of a literary work. Special research procedures are required to reveal, highlight these hidden communicative units and understand them in comprehensive way.