“I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill”: fundamentalist eventfulness in Isaac Babel's “Awakening”

The article presents an analysis of the paradoxical eventfulness in “Awakening”, where the main event is a violation of a tradition / norm in the name of another one, perceived as more valuable and truer. The precedential diegetic picture of the world is suggested as the basis for such a type of eventfulness. The connection is described between the eventfulness of “Awakening” and the eventfulness in other short stories by Babel’. The conclusion is made that some features of eventfulness of ‘Awakening” are very typical for Babel’, but their combination in the short story is unique. The question is presented concerning the typology and genesis of such eventfulness. The notion of “fundamentalist” eventfulness is introduced based on the definition of fundamentalism given by G.S. Pomerants: “Revolutionary denial of a corrupt tradition in the name of ancient simplicity”. A typological likeness is found between the picture of the world in some religious teachings with elements of fundamentalism and that of “Awakening”. A conclusion is made that in “Awakening” this way of thinking about an event (very widespread, but by no means universal) is applied, in a non-trivial way, to unusual subject matter, secular and private, lacking the religious and social pathos which is typical for fundamentalism. The question is raised of the necessity to study “fundamentalist” eventfulness as a special form on the basis of broad literary material.