Fantastika, myth and eschatology in A. Platonov's short novel (povest’) “The ethereal tract

The article analyzes certain methods of expressing the author’s position in A. Platonov’s fantastic short novel (povest’) “The Ethereal Tract.” The genre structure of this short novel is based on a complex synthesis of fantastika and reality, which connects mythological and eschatological archetypes in the genre subtext and reveals the author’s general intentions. The author’s view is manifested in the choice of the genre: the short novel (povest’) as a genre is focused on the narrative of what happened in the past, the definition of “fantastic” sets a completely different vector of movement - it is a look into the future, at what only can be. Thus, the “possibility of the impossible” is asserted - this is how the writer conceived of the fantastika. Platonov also resorts to other means of expressing the author’s position in the text: to irony (and often self-irony, if we take into account the autobiographic nature of his prose), to the grotesque, as a means to “scale” what is depicted, to the antithesis as a way of revealing the contradictions of life. However, by colliding with each other and contrasting the characters and their ideas, as well as fantastika and reality, myth and eschatology, the writer tries to arrive at some kind of synthesis in order to find the truth in the spirit of the Hegelian triad; the same technique underlies his genre strategy. Platonov bases his plot structure on quite real and useful achievements of scientific and technological progress, but strengthens the fantastic element of the plot, which leads to the opposite, negative effect. Platonov’s heroes do not see the boundaries between science and fantastika, or between fantastika and eschatology. However, the author sees this, so fantastika and reality, myth and eschatology in the poetics of Platonov’s short novel (povest’) acquire new connections: fantastika destroys not only utopia, but also myth. But in place of the mythological consciousness, which is able to somehow explain certain phenomena, fruitless eschatological aspirations come. As a result, both the author and the reader come to the conclusion that, despite the successes of science, a person still knows too little about himself and the world and has not reached the level of moral perfection to be worthy of his discoveries.