References to Epoch Documents as a Stylistic Feature of the Novel by I. Ilf and E. Petrov "The Twelve Chairs": Classification of the Intertextual Elements

The following academic paper is devoted to the analysis of intertextual features of the novel by I. Ilf and E. Petrov "The Twelve Chairs", namely, the analysis of its non-fiction pretexts, which have not been comprehensively considered by previous scholars. This fact determines the scholarly novelty of the research carried out in this paper. The subject of this academic research is fragments of guidebooks, royal decrees, articles and reports, which are included in the narrative primarily to reflect the New Economic Policy epoch (NEP). This article provides, on the one hand, an overview of existing work on the classification of intertextual elements used in "The Twelve Chairs", on the another hand, classification (based on the typology developed by G. P. Blok) of IIf and Petrov's references to certain sources not related to so called imaginative literature. The quotations used by the co-authors are divided into explicit and hidden, as well as illustrative and link type quotations (in accordance with G. P. Blok's research ‘Pushkin in his work on historical sources’). As a result, several functions of these intertextual elements are mentioned. They include reflection of the epoch coloring, characterization of Ostap Bender who is the main character and comic tone creation. The mentioned stylistic feature (frequent reference to non-fictional sources) often also performs a “defamiliarizing” function (V. Shklovsky’s term “defamiliarizing” means extracting something from its usual context), becoming another means of realizing parody in “The Twelve Chairs,” a novel that combines the seemingly incompatible elements: the rhetoric of royal decrees and statements of K. Marx, emphasized poetism and officialese, old and new stages of the Russian historical process.

Ilf, Petrov, The Twelve Chairs, G. Blok, intertextuality, parody, satire, travesty, quotation, early Stalin era