Who are you, Dr. Yanovsky? (about the attribution of "A Romance with Cocaine")

The subject of this article is one of the most mysterious works of Russian literature from the Paris emigration period – "The Novel with Cocaine," while the subject is the problem of the attribution of this work. The relevance of the article is due to the fact that none of the versions of the authorship of the novel is indisputable today, which necessitates further research in this direction. The aim of the article is to formulate and justify the hypothesis of the possible involvement of Vasily Yanovsky – a representative of the so-called "unnoticed generation" of the Paris emigration – in the creation of "The Novel with Cocaine." To achieve this goal, the article examines the main versions of the authorship of "The Novel with Cocaine," which are analyzed and compared with each other. The literary and historical context during which this work was created is taken into account. The article employs descriptive, comparative, and analytical methods, which provide the opportunity to view the subject of research from various angles as well as in their entirety. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that such an approach to solving the problem of attribution of "The Novel with Cocaine" is undertaken for the first time. The proposed authorship of V. Yanovsky is established through an analytical search for the reasons for the mystification and is substantiated through a textual analysis of "The Novel with Cocaine" as well as a number of works by V. Yanovsky. It has been established that there is a certain structural, plot, ideological-thematic, and lexical-syntactic unity between them and "The Novel with Cocaine." One of the main reasons for the creation of this mystification may be the creative conflict between V. Yanovsky and V. Nabokov, which is generally conditioned by the relationships between the writers of the "unnoticed generation" and the "higher echelon" emigrant writers. The results of the research provide an opportunity for further investigation of the stated problem and also contribute to the study of the phenomenon of mystification in Russian classical literature.

attribution, mystification, structure, plot, textology, hypothesis, novel, speech studies, syntax, stylistics