The poetics of duality in F. Abramov’s tetralogy Brothers and Sisters

The work is devoted to the poetics of duality in F. Abramov’s tetralogy Brothers and Sisters. The analysis of the duality models allows to imagine historical, social, political reality, the minimal structure of the human community: one and the other. At the center of the study are the key characters of the tetralogy, namely, Mikhail Pryaslin and Yegorshi Stavrov, who embody the eschatological Russian model of duality. The analysis of these characters is carried out against the background of the character structure as a whole. Within a Christian context, the Mikhail — Yegorsha twin pair is included in a broad semantic field. Yegorsha compares his sworn brother with Christ. According to the legend, the latter’s twin was apostle Thomas, whose name coincidentally means ‘a twin.’ If Mikhail is firmly associated with Christ, then Egorsha can be semantically identified with both Judas and Thomas (in all connotations). The destruction of the “country model,” the Russian schism also actualizes another version of duality: George the Victory-bearer and Yegoriy the trouble-bearer, which is already reflected at the level of character naming. The struggle of the “twin” heroes over a woman, ancestral land and the house, which is interpreted as a confrontation between Christ and the Antichrist, St. George and the “bad Yegorka” (changeling), is also implemented as the “Russian” version — Foma and Erema, in which the doubles lose to the circumstances. Peasant Russia is in captivity of civilization, and no one is able to protect it: the warriors die, the saints abandon the icons. This leads to the general sense of anxiety, of a life “between homes,” when the “prodigal son,” who has nowhere to go back to, becomes the modern hero.