The poetics of survival: experience of the first months of emigration in N.A. Teffi’s “Istanbul and the Sun” collection of short stories

The article analyses essays and stories included into N.A. Teffi’s “Istanbul and the Sun” book. The authors contend that interpretation of reality as an illusion or dream while staying awake is a notable characteristic of N.A. Teffi’s Istanbul prose. The authors conclude that one of the key themes of Teffi’s work - the perception of life as a dream - obtains in Istanbul sketches the dual status of a sociocultural verdict and a peculiar prescription for survival (concurrently aesthetical and psychological). On the one hand, dream seemingly deprives one’s consciousness of the course of time, i.e. the established order of days, months, and years. The writer views destitute life of Russian emigres in Istanbul as a social numbness or mirage which, however, may fade away some day. On the other hand, dream is a transition into the world of imagination, the sphere of fairy tale where historic upheavals have no significance, and which is granted the status of true reality in Teffi’s system of values.