The hidden dystopia in V. Ivanov's novel "U: the phono-semantic of the affected individuality vs. total and radical 'rebirth'"

The novel "U" by V.S. Ivanov represents the author's attempt to respond to the search for new possibilities and forms of proletarian life by the Soviet state and society. In this work, Ivanov outlines the contours of a utopian project emerging from the reality of the late 1920s and 1930s. However, the artistic logic of the text and the irrationally-oriented talent of the writer reveal the opposite side of this project, turning a potential technical utopia in the book into a probable dystopia. The object of study in this article is the dystopian motifs of V.S. Ivanov's novel "U," while the subject of research is the causal relationships of genre reversal and the specifics of the implementation of elements of the dystopian genre. The article focuses on the criteria that allow for the assertion of the existence of dystopian motifs in the novel "U": the abnormality of the value system associated with violence and deception; the doubtful, "thoughtful" hero, presented in the guise of a "simpleton"; the totality of unfreedom, projected by the hero, who embodies state power and state violence as enacted by its agents, and so on. Methods of genre, motif, and comparative analysis are employed. In the first case, the components of dystopia (values, hero, violence, unfreedom) are identified, in the second, leitmotif complexes (the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the egg) are explored, and in the last, two editions of the novel – "U" and "Crimson Sunset" – are examined in terms of their descriptions of the utopian project. The relevance of the study is determined by the literary scholarship's interest in examining phenomena of a complex genre nature. The novel "U" by V.S. Ivanov, containing elements of utopia, is analyzed in this article as a work with dystopian motifs. The novelty is defined by the insufficient study of "U" as a whole and the approach to it concerning the peculiarities of implementing the dystopian genre within it. Unlike other works that focus on the biographical, metaliterary, and psychological aspects of "U," the author explores the paradoxes of its genre nature and the meanings generated by it. While proposing a technical socialist utopia – a classless society, V.S. Ivanov simultaneously reveals through the power of his literary intuition the methods and consequences of its creation. The characters externally accept and internally reject the utopian project, relying on their affected yet comprehensible human nature, expressed through the phonosemantics of the sound "U".

utopia, dystopia, phono-semantics, genre, leitmotif complex, genre reverse, affects, metamorphosis, self-revelation, intertext