Grade: 11

Subject: “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?” (Gospel of Matthew ch.16) (according to T. Tolstoy's story "Clean Slate")

Target:

• get acquainted with the work of T. Tolstoy;
• by linguo-poetic analysis of the text to reveal its ideological orientation.

During the classes

I. Orgmoment

II. teacher's word

T. Tolstaya is a striking phenomenon in postmodern literature. Her collections "Day", "Night", "Raisins" enjoy the attention of readers of all ages. Why is her prose so attractive? First of all, the complexity and beauty of poetics. It is important not only what Tolstaya talks about, but also how she does it.

Tolstoy's style is hard, stingy. In her speech there are no words empty, optional, not filled with essence. Every detail is precise and expressive. Tolstoy's heroes are cute, sometimes naive, to the point of regret, eccentrics whom she loves, even if she loves them, there seems to be no reason for them. The main thing that the author conveys to readers is the preciousness and joy of existence, the happiness of human life as such. This idea is the main one in the stories of Tatyana Tolstaya.

The story "Clean Slate" is distinguished by some far-fetched plot. There is a kind of fusion of reality and fantasy in it. According to A. Genis, "Tolstaya is by no means a kind wizard, and her fairy tales have a bad ending." But here, too, Tolstaya remains true to her writing credo: stand next to her characters, look around with their own eyes, get over their pain, feel their misfortune and share it with them.

III. Work on the content of the story "Clean Slate".

While working on the content of the story, you were looking for keywords that help to understand its essence, the main idea.

How unusual is the story? (realistic reality turns into fantastic)

Why does melancholy come to Ignatiev every night? What is this image? (Tolstoy's metaphor is unusual and unexpected) longing is a sad nurse.

How are the characters in the story portrayed?

• wife - "haggard face", "mummy";
• Ignatiev - “I am completely sick”, “I couldn’t cry and therefore I smoked”, “I was ashamed of low thoughts”, “I bow”, “I tremble”;
• Valerochka, Valerik - "a frail, sickly sprout, miserable to a spasm."

What role does Ignatiev's dream play in the story? (painful delirium, a person cannot free himself from a feeling of hopelessness, despair, hence nightmarish visions: a ship with sick children. A stony desert with a dead horseman, a swamp bog with a red flower).

The color red appears repeatedly in the story: red wine, red flower, red dress , burning with a love flower. What is the significance of this color? (as a signal of danger, as desirable and unattainable, as death itself -"marsh bog with a red flower").

When does the conversation about the Alive come up for the first time? (conversation with a friend in the cellar).

What does a friend of Ignatiev mean by life?

What is it - living? (soul; “the living hurts”, “the harmony of the body and ... the brain”; “when it is transplanted to others, they do not survive, they cannot withstand”, “the living king-bell beat and buzzed in his trembling chest”; “as if, anticipating something then, in the chest, it was compressed, then squatted, closing its eyes, covering its head with its hands.

Why does Ignatiev want to delete the living? (to save his son, to become rich, successful, self-confident).

What is the symbolic meaning of the burning of the father's shirt? (this is a "wasted sacrifice." Anastasia does not love him. "He will be strong. He will burn everything that destroys barriers").

In the corridor of the hospital, Ignatiev examines the tablets with "instructive medical stories": "Gleb had a toothache." “And the eye had to be removed”: the author’s phrase follows: (If your eye tempts you, pluck it out) - How do you understand such a “neighborhood”? (This is from the Gospel, about temptation. The text has a different meaning:the soul cannot be torn out like a bad tooth).

What feelings did you experience when reading about supermen, deprived of "alive"? (Regret, anxiety, shock. People who are deprived, in the literal sense, of a soul, are really soulless. These are no longer people, but biological mechanisms: blond, N., doctor).

What is striking in the image of a doctor? (He didn’t have eyes. “From the empty eye sockets, a black hole blew into nowhere ...” The eyes are the mirror of the soul. The doctor has no soul, therefore, there are no eyes. Even worse, that for money this “doctor” is able to kill the soul, which is still worse than physical murder).

What was Ignatiev after the removal of the living? And what did this living thing mean for himself and for his loved ones? (without a soul, and Living is a soul, a person ceases to be a person).

Ignatiev's soul endured pain, suffering, tossed about, not finding peace, but at the same time she felt sorry, loved, took care of his loved ones. The metamorphosis that happened to Ignatiev is terrible and natural. Again I recall his nightmare: "a swamp bog with a red flower." Chasing the longed-for "peace", he lost everything, but did he gain?...

IV. Conclusions.

Today's topic of the lesson is indicated by the gospel line. How do you understand it? What does T. Tolstaya make you think about? Can this story be taken as fiction only? (Student reasoning).

The latest literature is complex and diverse. To a certain extent, it is the modern stage that can be considered as a summing up of the twentieth century, which absorbed the artistic insights of the Silver Age, the experiments of modernism and the avant-garde of the 1910-1920s, the apotheosis of social realism in the 1930s, its self-destruction in subsequent decades and marked by the beginning the formation of new artistic trends based on this great and tragic experience, characterized by an intense search for such value orientations and creative methods that would open a way out of the protracted spiritual crisis experienced by Russia throughout the century.

The artistic world of Tatyana Tolstaya seems to be one of the brightest, most original in modern literature. Having started working already in an uncensored space, she was able to freely master the various routes of literary experiment.

This cycle of lessons is offered as part of an elective course for grades 11, but these materials can also be used in literature lessons in grade 11 when studying the modern literary process of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

• introduce you to a prominent representative of modern postmodern poetics;
• arouse interest in modern genres of literature;
• help to understand the complexity and debatability of our reality by studying the work of Tatyana Tolstaya;
• broaden their horizons, deepen students' knowledge of literature.

• to activate the creative abilities of students:
• to promote the development of the ability to explore, analyze, generalize:
• to instill the skill of using a computer for educational purposes.

1. T.N. Tolstaya is a bright representative of modern postmodern poetics (Presentation of the name. The concept of postmodernism).
2. Model of the world in modern dystopia (the novel "Kys", the main character of which is a book).
3. The image of Petersburg (Special facets of the “Petersburg text” in the story “The Okkervil River”).
4. Pushkin's myth in the literature of postmodernism (Pushkin's duel in the story "The Plot").
5. “Women's Handwriting” by Tatyana Tolstaya (“Family Thought” in the story “Clean Sheet”).
6. Clash of dreams and reality (Dreams and dreams in the story "Date with a bird").
7. Humanism and moral choice (The story "Sonya" as a legacy of classical Russian literature).

The fate of the "classic" - a contemporary (Presentation of the name. The concept of postmodernism) (Slide 3).

Tatyana Nikitichna Tolstaya - a famous prose writer, publicist - was born on May 3, 1951 in Leningrad. She was the sixth child in the family of academician-philologist Nikita Tolstoy, son of writer A.N. Tolstoy and poetess N.V. Krandiyevskaya. On the maternal side - also "literary" roots: the granddaughter of the famous poet-translator Mikhail Lozinsky.

In 1974 she graduated from the Department of Classical Philology of the Faculty of Philology of Leningrad State University. But she never worked by profession, because there was nowhere. She moved to Moscow, got married, and was placed in the “Main Editorial Office of Eastern Literature” at the publishing house “Nauka”. Tatyana Nikitichna worked there for 8 years as a proofreader.

In 1983, Tolstoy as a prose writer made her debut: the story “They sat on the golden porch” was published in the journal “Aurora” and Tolstoy as a critic: her polemical article “With Glue and Scissors” appeared in “Questions of Literature”. The decade of the first - so far the best - stories by T. Tolstoy began. Her prose has been translated into many foreign languages, the most prestigious of which are English, German, French, and Swedish.

In 1998, Tatyana Tolstaya was admitted to the Writers' Union of the USSR, and the following year she became a member of the Russian PEN Center. During these years, Tatyana Nikitichna "discovered for herself that there is such a convenient thing as journalism." Publicistic essays appeared, which a few years later replenished numerous collections of her prose. In 1991, T. Tolstaya led the column "Own bell tower" in the weekly "Moscow News".

The talent of the Soviet prose writer, who had already “highly risen” on the social ladder, was appreciated abroad. From 1990 to 2000, Tatyana Tolstaya lived mainly in the United States, teaching Russian literature at various universities. According to Tolstoy, she "teaches how not to write fiction, because it is impossible to teach writing."

In 2001, the triumphant return to his homeland was marked by the prize of the fourteenth Moscow International Book Fair in the nomination "Prose-2001" and "Triumph" for his first novel "Kys". Before this book, T. Tolstaya was known only as the author of four collections of stories: “They sat on the golden porch”, “Love - do not love”, “Sisters”, “Okkervil River”. After "Kisya", collections of reprinted stories and magazine and newspaper essays began to appear, occasionally "diluted" with new creations. These are “Raisins”, “Night”, “Day”, “Two”, “Circle”, “Do not kitty”, “White Walls”.

Now T.N. Tolstaya is a member of many and diverse Russian literary juries, cultural foundations, is a member of the editorial board of the American magazine Counterpoint, leads, together with screenwriter Avdotya Smirnova, the School of Scandal on the NTV channel, participates in many literary and near-literary events, modestly saying: “Yes I don't do well anywhere. It's just the effect of being there."

Tatyana Nikitichna Tolstaya firmly and confidently takes her place on the Russian literary Olympus, being the brightest representative of modern postmodern poetics (Slide 4).

The connection between T. Tolstoy's prose and the Russian classical tradition is obvious, but there is also a connection with the modernist tradition of the 1910s-1920s.

The most important artistic techniques of postmodernism: grotesque, irony, oxymoron.

The most important sign is intertextuality, citation.

The most important task is the interpretation of the legacy of the classics.

Suggestions to the reader: to identify plot moves, motifs, images, hidden and explicit reminiscences.

The novel "Kys" (Slide 5).

The 21st century began with controversy about T. Tolstoy's novel "Kys", called one of the most striking literary events of recent years. T. Tolstaya has been working on the novel since 1986, the idea was born, according to the author, under the impression of the Chernobyl disaster. The action of the novel takes place after a certain explosion in the town of Fedor-Kuzmichsk, which used to be called Moscow. This town, surrounded by forests and swamps, is inhabited by people who survived the Explosion. The mouse becomes the national currency and the main food product, and a certain Kys, who hunts a person in the forest, becomes the subject of intimidation and intimidation. Bizarre, full of irony and refined language play, the metaphorical world of T. Tolstoy is difficult to retell - this is noted by almost all critics.

We can say that before us unfolds a kind of encyclopedia of Russian life in which the features of the past are easily guessed and a terrible picture of the future appears. Thus, genre originality of the novel is realized in both social and philosophical aspects. On the one hand, Tolstoy's novel presents a model of the world associated in the reader's mind with a totalitarian state, and on the other hand, this dystopia paints a picture of a world that has “mutated” morally and spiritually, and then the Explosion is understood as a catastrophe that occurred in the minds of people, in their souls, after the Explosion, the starting points changed, the moral foundations on which reality was based for many centuries squinted.

Roman T. Tolstoy "Kys" - dystopia, The main character of which is the book. It is no coincidence that the author's appeal to the topic of the book takes place precisely at the beginning of the new century. Recently, more and more often the question arises of what role the book will play in the life of a modern person. The book is being supplanted by the computer, TV, video, and with it some very important component of spirituality is leaving, and this absence cannot be filled with anything. The attitude towards the book is one of the central motifs of the genre. dystopia - is refracted in an unusual way in the novel.

The author focuses on the process of awakening and becoming the personality of the protagonist Benedict. It is interesting to note that in the image of Benedict, at first, one can see intertextual motif- This is the image of Ivan the Fool, traditional for the style of Russian folklore.

The plot is based on the fact that Benedict is imbued with a pathological thirst for reading. Spiritual thirst requires a continuous supply of book fuel. Reading becomes a process. The book ceases to be a source of knowledge, a means for the spiritual improvement of a person.

Of great importance for the concept of the novel is the image of Pushkin, intertextual by it's nature. In the novel "Kys" Pushkin becomes a synonym for culture in general, a synonym for memory and historical continuity.

Students are offered questions and tasks on the content of the novel "Kys" and a topic for an essay.

The story “Okkervil River” (Slide 6)

Special facets of the “Petersburg text” are found in the story “The Okkervil River”. From the very first lines, the unusualness of St. Petersburg is determined, the dependence of the perception of the author and the reader on literary associations: “The wet, flowing, wind-beaten city behind the defenseless, uncurtained, bachelor window, behind the melted cheeses hidden in the cold between the windows seemed then to be the evil intent of Peter, the revenge of a huge, bug-eyed, gaping-mouthed, toothy tsar-carpenter, catching up with everything in the night nightmares, with a ship's ax in a raised hand, of their weak, frightened subjects. A dark fantasy city forces its inhabitants to exist according to the laws of fictional, theatrical life.

The protagonist of the story is the middle-aged lonely Simeonov, for whom it becomes bliss on a cold, damp Petersburg evening to lock himself in his room and extract from a torn package an old record with the charming voice of Vera Vasilievna. Simeonov is somewhat reminiscent of Akaky Akakievich from Gogol's "The Overcoat", he has the same hard-to-define appearance, incomprehensible age, he also cherishes his dream. For Simeonov, an old record is not a thing, but the magical Vera Vasilievna herself. St. Petersburg trams passed by Simeonov's window, the final stop of which beckoned Simeonov with his mythological sound: “Okkervil River”. This river, unknown to the hero, becomes a convenient stage into which he can fit the scenery he needs. So Simeonov "embeds" Vera Vasilievna, so reminiscent of the young Akhmatova in her appearance, in the scenery of St. Petersburg of the Silver Age.

Tatyana Tolstaya leads her hero to the tragic destruction of the myth, and the meeting with the myth turned out to be just as insultingly mundane.

Emphasizing the deep intertextuality story, critic A. Zholkovsky notes: “ Simeonov is a typical image of a “small man" of Russian literature, deliberately sewn from Pushkin's Eugene, whom the river separates from Parasha; Gogol's Piskarev, whose fantasies are shattered by the brothel prose of the life of a beauty he likes; and the helpless dreamer from Dostoyevsky's White Nights.

Students are offered questions and tasks on the content of the story and a problematic issue for writing-reasoning.

The story "Plot" (Slide 7)

In the text of the story, the heroes of the two most important Russian myths of the 20th century are combined - the hero of the cultural myth - Pushkin and the hero of the ideological myth - Lenin. The writer plays with these myths, a kaleidoscope of cultural fragments provokes reader associations.

T. Tolstaya, modeling the plot, asks herself and her reader - co-author a question that has arisen more than once in Pushkin studies: what would Pushkin's fate have been like if not for the fatal shot?

The plot makes an incredible zigzag: in a town on the Volga, some nasty boy threw a snowball at the aging Pushkin, and the angry poet beats the little scoundrel on the head with a stick. In the city, then, they gossiped for a long time that “the visiting black man beat the son of the Ulyanovs on the head with a stick.” Further in the "Subject" Lenin's biography is modeled.

The principle of metamorphoses as a way of dialogue with chaos is clearly manifested in the poetics of T. Tolstoy, in which “different optics of world perception transform, overflow into each other, keeping in themselves the “memory” of distant cultural and artistic texts.”

Students are asked questions and assignments about the content of the story.

The story "Clean slate" (Slide 8)

The world of men and women are different worlds. Intersecting in places, but not completely. It is quite natural that gradually “family thought” ceased to be central to literature. A person in a world where “madness becomes the norm” (S. Dovlatov) is doomed to loneliness. An interesting solution to this problem is offered by T. Tolstaya in the story “Clean Slate”. The main character - Ignatiev - is sick with longing. He goes to the doctor. The transformation operation is going well. The end of Tolstoy's story is reminiscent of the end of Zamyatin's anti-utopia We, where the ideal of the family is replaced by the ideal of the Incubator. At the end of the story, Ignatiev is a blank sheet that will have to be filled in, and the reader can already guess what will be written on this sheet.

Students are invited to write an essay after reading and discussing the story “The Blank Slate”.

The story "Date with a bird" (Slide 9)

In the story "Date with a bird" sounds one of Tolstoy's key topics – clash of dreams and reality. Throughout the story, there is a bizarre fusion of author and hero.

Before us is the daily life of ordinary people, without high-profile feats, without amazing dramas, the life of ordinary heroes of history, the smallest grains of sand, each of which contains a universe of thoughts and feelings. The boy Petya perceives the world around him directly and openly, as is typical of all children, but the false life of adults, the insincerity of his family members become a revelation for him. It is not surprising that meeting a mysterious lady named Tamila plunges him into a fantasy world. With Tamila, not only the enchanting fairy-tale world bursts into Petya's life, but also the real world, carrying along with the joy of discovery the bitterness of loss, the inevitability of death. Through poetic allegories Tamila gradually instills a fear of life in the boy, offering a crystal dream castle as an alternative. Is it good or bad? The critic A. Genis drew attention to this feature of Tolstoy's stories. Students are encouraged to think about the critic’s statement: “T. Tolstaya seeks to protect herself from the world, build a beautiful metaphorical world in the margins of the hero's biography."

The story "Sonya" (Slide 10)

Women's prose speaks in plain language about traditional values, about the highest categories of being: family, children, love. Exactly the theme of love is central in the story "Sonya". The time of action is the pre-war time, the heroes are young, happy, in love and full of hope. The appearance of a new face - Sonya - brings a pleasant variety to life and promises a new adventure. Sonya seemed to her friends a boring, naive, limited person, she "was romantic and sublime in her own way." Sonya was happy with her "usefulness" and even the beautiful Ada later envied her. In the story, true romantic values ​​are “tested for strength”, the main of which is love. Sonya turned out to be the happiest because she believed in love. Sonya's dreaminess and romance make it possible to laugh at her, insecurity makes it possible to deceive, selflessness allows her to be used selfishly.

Students are asked to answer questions and write an essay.

Information sources

1. Tolstaya T.N. Kitty. - M., Eksmo, 2000.
2. Tolstaya T.N. Okkervil river. Stories. - M., Podkova (Eksmo-Press), 2002.
3. Tolstaya T.N. Raisin. Collection of stories. - M., 2002.
4. Tolstaya T.N. White walls. - M., Eksmo, 2004.
5. Weil P., Genis A. Town in a Snuffbox: Tatiana Tolstoy's Prose // Zvezda.-1990.– No. 8.
6. Folimonov S.S. Stories by T.N. Tolstoy at the lessons of extracurricular reading // Literature at school.– 2006.– No. 2.
7. Gaysina A.K. Time in a work of art // Literature at school. -2008. - No. 11.
8. Kholodyakov I.V. “Other prose”: gains and losses // Literature at school.– 2003.– No. 1.
9. Modern Russian Literature: Textbook for high school students and applicants to universities // Ed. prof. B.A. Lanina.-M., Ventana-Graf, 2006.

S.A. GIMATDINOVA,
Naberezhnye Chelny

Integrated lesson on the story of T.N. Tolstoy "Clean Slate"

Goals.

1. Acquaintance with the content and analysis of the story.
2. Work on the language of the work.

A miracle is something that is impossible and yet possible.
That which cannot happen and yet does happen.

(Bernard Show. Back to Methuselah)

For a great deed, a great word.
From an excess of feelings, the mouth speaks.

(Proverbs)

Today in the lesson we will get acquainted with the story of the modern writer Tatyana Nikitichna Tolstaya "Clean Sheet", we will try to analyze it and work on the language of the work.

T.N. Tolstaya was born in 1951. Granddaughter of Alexei Nikolayevich Tolstoy, an outstanding writer, author ... (students suggest: "The Adventures of Pinocchio", "Hyperboloid of engineer Garin", "Aelita", "Walking through the torments", "Peter I"). She entered literature in the 1980s and immediately became famous for her stories, which combine the accuracy of drawing with a flight of fancy, psychologism with the grotesque, comprehension of spiritual secrets with sophisticated writing technique. For the novel "Kys" she was awarded the literary "Oscar" - the "Triumph" award for 2001; became the winner of the competition "The Best Editions of the XIV Moscow International Book Fair in the nomination" Prose-2001 "".

"A Clean Slate" is one of the best and most mysterious stories by Tatyana Tolstaya. You have already read this book at home.

- Who is its main character? What can you say about him and his family? (The main character is Ignatiev. He lives with his wife and a sick child.)

How does he treat his wife? (He takes pity on her. “Nothing is more exhausting than a sick child.” Covers her with a blanket when she falls asleep. Notices “haggard face”, offers to bring a pillow. “Earthy, tired, dear wife sleeps under a torn blanket.” This is a key phrase in understanding Ignatiev's relationship with his wife. How much pain, how much compassion for the mother of his sick child!)

- And what is the attitude of Ignatiev to his son Valerik? (Loves him, pities him.)

How can you see that he loves you? ("White Valerik was scattered - a frail, sickly sprout, miserable to a spasm - a rash, glands, dark circles under the eyes.")

– Find words with diminutive suffixes (white, sprout, glands). They talk about reverent paternal love and tenderness for the child.

When the boy groaned in the next room, "Ignatiev jumped at the door with a push, rushed to the barred bed."

I draw students' attention to expressive synonyms: jumped, jumped, - which convey the quickness of the actions of the alarmed father.

Finishing the conversation about Ignatiev-husband, Ignatiev-father, I quote: "... I took pity on her, took pity on the frail, white, sweaty Valerik again, took pity on himself, left, lay down and lay awake, looked at the ceiling."

The main feeling in relation to the family is pity.

- Does Ignatiev feel happy? (No, he doesn’t. Because of this, he doesn’t sleep at night. Gardens grow somewhere, the seas rustle, cities are built - Ignatiev feels like their master, but ... he must take care of his family.)

And yet, in his dreams, he imagines himself to be the "ruler of the world" and the "good king."

- Who is Ignatiev's constant night girlfriend? Who is always by his side? (Longing. She comes to the hero every night.)

Tolstaya uses a metaphorical paraphrase, calling melancholy "a sad nurse for a hopeless patient." (Students find and read the quote: “Every night longing came to Ignatiev. Heavy, vague, with her head bowed, she sat on the edge of the bed, took her by the hand - a sad nurse for a hopeless patient. So they were silent for hours - hand in hand..)

Every night, "hand in hand, Ignatiev was silent with anguish." It even seems to him that "longing is coming to the cities." Here "longing moved closer to him, waved a ghostly sleeve ...".

- What kind of pictures does longing show a suffering person? (Ignatiev represents distant ships, sailors, native women, a captain; an endless stony desert with a “pacing camel” - represents the places where he could be if ...

And more often than others, he sees "the unfaithful, unsteady, evasive Anastasia.")

– “Unfaithful, unsteady, evasive”... Is this a positive or negative characteristic? (Negative, of course.)

Ignatiev understands that she is not worth his love - and yet loves.

Now we are staging a fragment of the story "Ignatiev with a friend in the cellar." (Students read by roles from the words After work, Ignatiev did not immediately go home, but drank beer with a friend in the cellar, ending with a dialogue:
– And what is his name?
– N.)

- What does Ignatiev complain about to a school friend? (To despair, to longing. “I am in despair. I am simply in despair.” Three times he repeats the word yearning.)

- Read what Ignatiev says about his wife. (“The wife is a saint. She quit her job, sits with Valerochka ... She just gives all her best. Everything turned black.”)

- What do these words say? (Ignatiev sympathizes with his wife, understands how difficult it is for her.)

What does he say about his son? (“He is sick, he is sick all the time. His legs don’t walk well. Such a small little cinder. A little warm. Doctors, injections, he is afraid of them. He screams. I can’t hear him crying.”)

Again I pay attention to words with diminutive suffixes; students find: legs, small, little cinder.

– What is little cinder?

A pre-prepared student reads an article from Ozhegov's dictionary:

cinder end. The remains of an unburned candle.

A very expressive word: it seems to the father that the life in his child is a little warm and is about to burn out.

Ignatiev continues to complain about fate.

(Students find and read the passage: “But I, imagine, I suffer. The wife suffers, Valerochka suffers, and Anastasia probably also suffers ... And we all torment each other..)

I draw attention to the syntax: Ignatiev speaks of his suffering in a separate sentence, and the suffering of his wife, son, Anastasia - in another.

Who do you think suffers the most? (He himself, therefore, speaks first of all about his experiences.)

– What do you think? (The wife experiences the most painful suffering. She does not sleep at night. She is forced to leave her job. She stopped taking care of herself: “Ignatiev looked at the regrown black hair - she had not pretended to be a blonde for a long time ...”.)

I explain: Valerik suffers, but less. Small children do not know how to get sick, because, unlike adults, they do not know that a serious illness can end in death. Temporary relief - and the child is again cheerful and cheerful.

- And what can you say about the suffering of Ignatiev? (He suffers the least, does not sit with a sick child, can be distracted at work, in communication with a friend; the only thing he does is read “Turnip” to his son in the evenings.)

A friend ironically calls Ignatiev a "global sufferer", a "woman" who revels in "invented torments."

Ignatiev says about himself: "I'm sick ...".

- Why is he sick? (Ignatiev considers his longing a disease.)

Yes, not only Ignatiev and his friend are sitting in the beer cellar, but also melancholy - it was not without reason that she “hurried” after our hero ... There was no way to get rid of her, the doorman let her into the cellar.

And Ignatiev is tired of pity, suffering and compassion - pity, compassion, mercy seem to him a disease.

The hero dreams of becoming a different person. What? (“... I’ll cheer up. I’ll forget Anastasia, I’ll earn a lot of money, I’ll take Valery to the south ... I’ll repair the apartment ...”)

- What is the way out friend? (He believes that Ignatiev needs to have an operation. “The diseased organ must be amputated. Like an appendix.”)

– What does the school friend say about the results of the operation? What are the arguments in her favour? ("1. The mental abilities are unusually sharpened. 2. Willpower grows. 3. All idiotic fruitless doubts completely stop. 4. Harmony of the body and ... uh ... brain. Intelligence shines like a searchlight.")

And the last thing that is especially convincing is that there are already operated ones: “... there is one sidekick - I studied with him at the institute. The big man has become.

So, by removing this unnecessary organ, you can even become a “big man”.

- What is this organ? Does a friend call him? (No, he doesn’t. He says: “Dogs don’t have it. They have reflexes. Pavlov’s teaching.”)

Let's remember the pronoun her. Therefore, an organ will be amputated, and this organ will not He (brain) not it (heart) and she .

- How does Ignatiev feel about motorists? (He doesn’t like them. “Someone in the Zhiguli deliberately drove through a puddle, doused Ignatiev with a muddy wave, splashed his trousers. This happened often with Ignatiev.”)

– Why is this happening? (Because of a bad upbringing. The one who travels boasts of his wealth in front of the one who goes, and not just boasts, but also wants to humiliate, offend a person.)

Here the word plays an important role. on purpose. on purpose- means specifically to offend, laugh at a pedestrian. But a puddle can be bypassed. By the way, in Europe they don’t behave like this on the roads. Drivers stop to allow a walking person to cross the street.

- What thoughts come to Ignatiev's head? (“... I’ll buy a car, I’ll douse everyone myself. To avenge the humiliation of the indifferent.”)

As you can see, the rudeness of some breeds anger and rudeness of others - it's like a chain reaction.

- But how can you see that Ignatiev is still not a boor, not an insolent one? (He was "ashamed of low thoughts, shook his head. I am completely ill.")

An important word for understanding the character of the hero - ashamed. Choose a synonym for the word shame. (Students can easily find the closest synonym - conscience.)

Yes, shame is shameful, embarrassing, uncomfortable in front of others.

A dark-skinned man, who taps a coin on the glass of a pay phone, while waiting for his turn, angrily throws at the boy: "You must have a conscience." So the theme of conscience begins to sound in the story.

- Could you get through to Anastasia Ignatiev? (No, he couldn’t. “... long beeps did not find a response, they disappeared in the cold rain, in the cold city, under low cold clouds.”)

Thrice Tolstaya repeats the word cold. Repetition here is a means of expressiveness, emotionality. It is needed in order to show how uncomfortable the hero feels in his hometown - he, a pedestrian, is cold among the passengers. He has a conscience, mercy. "Swarthy short man", coming out of the booth of a pay phone with tears in his eyes, he met with "a sympathetic smile."

Reading by roles of the episode "Ignatiev at the "big man""(from the words "N. received in a week ..." ending with the words "The audience is over").

A tear-stained woman comes out of the big man's office. What does this artistic detail say? (N. is a big boss. He refused the woman some request, so she comes out with tears.)

- Why was Ignatiev's friend nervous when talking with an institute comrade? (N. - “a significant person.” Works in a reputable institution. “A table, a jacket, a golden fountain pen in a pocket” - in a word, a boss.)

That's right, any mere mortal is shy in front of "rulers and judges", especially since they most often, without even understanding the essence of the matter, refuse these mere mortals.

– What did N. say about the operation? (“...Quickly, painlessly, I'm satisfied...pull out, extract.”)

- Do you know what is extract? (The prepared student reads: Extract. Same as extractor.- Ozhegov).

Extracted- it means extracting, pulling out individual components from the whole.

– Why was the conversation with N. so short? (N. is a big boss, a business man. He has no time. Answering a question, he looks at his watch.)

- What clericalisms are found in this short episode? (“I acted like this ...”, “not to advertise”, “time storage”, “audience is over.”)

Cemetery cold emanates from these words. time storage- the author's neologism Tolstoy. For this situation - an extremely expressive word. Chiefs of this rank believe that every minute of their life is precious, unique, and they try to get rid of annoying visitors as soon as possible.

- How can you see that N. is a very wealthy person? (He has a "golden fountain pen", a "massive golden vault", an expensive strap.)

- As we have seen, longing accompanies Ignatiev everywhere as his constant companion. Did she go with Ignatiev to the office of a "significant person"? (No, she didn’t go. She doesn’t belong in a solid institution with many signs and strong doors. Yes, bosses don’t need to know what longing is.)

Longing returns to Ignatiev after the audience. (Students find the quote: “Melancholy was picking up again, evening friend. She looked out from behind the drainpipe, ran across the wet pavement, walked, mingling with the crowd, relentlessly watched, waited for Ignatiev to be left alone..)

- What kind of life does each Ignatiev promise after the operation? (“Healthy, fulfilling life, not chicken digging! Career. Success. Sports. Women. Away with complexes, away with tediousness! Look at yourself: who do you look like? Whiner. Coward! Be a man, Ignatiev! A man! Then you and women will love. And so - who are you? Rag! ")

- The mention of women again makes Ignatiev remember Anastasia. Did she consider Ignatiev a man? (I didn’t think so. “It is doubtful. That you. Ignatiev. Be a man. Because men. They are. Resolute.”)

- What symbolic meaning did his father's "tea-colored silk shirt with short sleeves" have for Ignatiev? (A connection with the past, with the father. First, Ignatiev the father wore it, then Ignatiev the son: “a good thing, without demolition; he married in it and met Valerik from the hospital.”)

- Why did Ignatiev burn this shirt? (Because Anastasia wanted it that way.)

Submitting to her, Ignatiev burned his blood ties with the past (parents) and the present (wife and son).

The shirt should be dear as a memory, but the hero neglected this memory.

- Who took possession of the ashes from the burned shirt? (Melancholy. “Ignatiev burned his father’s tea shirt - its ashes shower the bed at night, melancholy pours handfuls of it, quietly sows through a half-opened fist.”)

- Anastasia considers Ignatiev weak. He agrees to an operation to become strong. Why does he need strength? (“He will lasso... Anastasia. He will raise the sallow, downcast face of his dear, exhausted wife... Smile, too, little Valerik. Your legs will get stronger, and the glands will pass, for papa loves you, pale city potato sprout. Papa will become rich, with fountain pens. He will call expensive doctors in gold glasses ...”)

- Ignatiev believes that he will become a different person - "contradictions will not tear him apart", he will forget "shameful doubts." What comparisons does the writer use when drawing the “new” Ignatiev? (“Slender as cedar, strong as steel.”)

The last comparison is “cold”. Steel is not only hard, but also cold.

– In this part, the theme of conscience continues. Who is she related to? (With Anastasia. She says “shameless words”, she “smiles with a shameless smile.”)

I pay attention to the landscape in the next part. Students read:

A summer morning chirped through the kitchen window. Sprinklers sprinkled with iridescent fans a short cool, in the tangled clubs of trees the living squeaked, jumped. Behind him a half-asleep night shone through the muslin, whispers of melancholy ran, foggy pictures of trouble, the measured splash of waves on a dull deserted shore, low, low clouds.

Pay attention to the word rainbow. Before the operation, Ignatiev has bright dreams of a future rebirth.

Anyone before a surgical intervention is afraid, the look becomes especially intent, as if a person sees everything for the last time.

- What does Ignatiev notice? (“The haggard face of the wife”, he wants to “caress the strands of the expensive mummy’s hair.”)

- Why does Ignatiev compare his wife with a mummy? (She dried up from suffering, sleepless nights, constant anxiety for the life of a child.)

And again - for the umpteenth time! - Ignatiev mentally promises his wife to make Valerik happy. The son will be the ruler of the "earthly cup."

In the queue among the people waiting for the operation, Ignatiev notices a nervous blond.

- How can you see that he, too, is worried and afraid? (He is “pathetic”, “with a shifty look”, bites his nails and bites off the hangnails. “In front of the door to the office he howled softly, felt his pockets, stepped over the threshold. Pitiful, pitiful, insignificant!”)

In order to somehow calm himself, Ignatiev looks at posters with instructive medical stories.

- Why was Ignatiev interested in Gleb's story? (He suffered because of a bad tooth, but the doctor “pulled out the tooth and threw it away” - Gleb felt happy again.)

Ignatiev took this story as another argument in favor of the operation.

Dramatization of the episode "Ignatiev's Conversation with a Nurse"(from the words “The sound of a gurney was heard from behind ...” to the words “The nurse laughed, picked up a dropper, and left”).

- What did Ignatiev learn from the nurse? (What her not only extracted, but also transplanted. But people usually do not survive and die from heart attacks: “They didn’t know that she a piece like that - and suddenly here you are - give them a transplant.")

We see the doctor's office door swinging open. Whom does Ignatiev escort with "enchanted gaze"? (Blond. He came out with a “chased step”, “haughty, going ahead. Superman, dream, ideal, athlete, winner!”.)

One more step - and Ignatiev will also become like that.

- What does our hero pay attention to in Professor Ivanov's office? (“A chair like a dentist, an anesthesia machine with two silver tanks, a pressure gauge. Plastic model cars, porcelain birds.”)

There is nothing alive in this office, only dead things.

Who is the north wind compared to? (With "indifferent executioner".)

Why do you think there is such a comparison? (The doctor acts as the executioner in this office.)

- What amazed Ignatiev when the professor raised his head? (“He didn’t have eyes. From the empty eye sockets, a black gap blew into nowhere, an underground passage, to the outskirts of the dead seas of darkness.”)

Ignatiev voluntarily came to this operation, but he feels uncomfortable among the dead things. The doctor's empty eye sockets portend "dead seas of darkness." It seems to our hero that “a crack has run through his trembling heart,” that “anxiety is breezing through his heart.”

Therefore, he asks a rhetorical question: “Alive, do you exist? ..”. But there is nowhere to retreat.

Reading the "Operation" fragment by roles(from the words “The Assyrian once again let me look ...”, ending with the words “Ringing in the ears, darkness, ringing, non-existence”).

- What did Ignatiev see at the very beginning of anesthesia? ("... how she clung to the window, saying goodbye, sobbing, covering the white light, a friend devoted to them - melancholy.")

It follows from this that Ignatiev said goodbye to longing forever. “And the living gasped,” - he, like melancholy, was also betrayed.

This artistic image alive passes, like melancholy, through the whole story. Having decided on the operation, Ignatiev betrays not only longing, but all living things.

- And what does the “wild, woeful cry of Anastasia” mean? (Let her have a “shameless smile”, “shameless words”, even Anastasia is against this operation.)

- Repeats Ignatiev's word five times it's a pity. Whom does he feel sorry for? (It’s a pity for those who remain. The last person he sees before losing consciousness is his son Valerik. He “raised his pen, something is clamped in his fist, the wind is tearing his hair ...”)

Dramatization of the last fragment "After the operation" (from the words "Ignatiev - Ignatiev?" Until the end of the story).

- Reread the first sentence (“Ignatiev - Ignatiev? - Slowly floated up from the bottom, pushing soft dark rags with his head, - it was a cloth lake.”)

Why is the character's last name repeated twice? (The first time the surname sounds like a statement, the second - like a question. The writer herself is not sure if Ignatiev woke up in an armchair. Maybe completely different?)

- Has Ignatiev changed? (Yes, it has changed a lot.)

What has changed in the first place? (Manners, vocabulary.)

First of all, the lexicon. Mass appeared vulgarisms.(The student explains that these are vulgar, rude, obscene expressions.) Students find them: figs with her, wind(instead of go), no fools, go nuts, peepers(instead of went), e-mine, women, shlendrait(instead of walk), cool, without bullshit, denyuzhki, kobenitsya.

If earlier the hero expressed his thoughts and feelings in the correct, literary language, now mainly in the words of a colloquial style. Students find: by pull, not weak, cheated, I'll shake out the money, boss(instead of doctor), in the trash, let's five, be, now(instead of Now), Nastya, chuckled, little baby, give it to her paw, everything is chore; Well, this is finally the finish line.

Feeling like a significant person, Ignatiev introduces into his speech and office work. Students read: write where it is necessary, signal, provide a boarding school.

The depressing familiarity of the hero is especially horrifying. (The student explains that familiarity, according to Ozhegov, is inappropriate swagger, excessive ease.)

- How does he address Professor Ivanov, who performed the operation at the personal request of Ignatiev himself? (Doc, chief, beard. “Did you sow peepers, boss?”)

This person tries to be original, comes up with, in his opinion, witty jokes. (Students read: "Fool loves red", "Keep your tail with a gun", "Be healthy, don't cough".)

In fact, these are formulaic, banal expressions that have already become firmly established in the spoken language. Word stamps.

We remember what plans for the future Ignatiev made before the operation: to earn a lot of money, to cure Valerik, to give rest to his exhausted wife.

Do his plans change? (Yes, they change. He outlines a program of action from three points: 1. "Shcha quickly to Nastya. Shtob blew up!" 2. Write a complaint that doctor Ivanov takes bribes - although, as we remember, he gave it himself. 3. To define in a boarding school a “non-bearer” - “unsanitary conditions, you understand.”)

Please note that the new Ignatiev does not even remember his wife - she, “a lake frozen to the bottom”, has no place in Ignatiev’s new life, just as there is no place for a son, a “little cinder”, a “potato sprout”, which suddenly turned into “ little baby”, and it is no longer possible to live with him under the same roof.

- Who did the respectable Ignatiev turn into? (In a boor, insolent, impudent, scoundrel, for whom there is nothing sacred.)

- So what amputated Ignatiev? Why did he become rascal? I asked you to prepare a tablet at home. Write on it what was extracted from our hero. (Students hold up cards.)

We come to a common conclusion: Ignatiev was amputated soul.

Try to prove it with text. (Students read: 1. "In dogs her No. They have reflexes. Pavlov's teaching. 2. "Harmony of the body and, uh, brain".)

Indeed, it is generally believed that having a soul is the prerogative of man, but not animals.

- What should be the word in the phrase "harmony of the body and ..."? (“Harmony of body and soul.”)

A student - an expert in the Russian language reads an extract from the dictionary of phraseological units:

Soul and body - whole, whole being, completely, perfectly, in every respect.

Let's talk about the word now. soul. What does it mean?

Experts answer:

Ozhegov's dictionary:

Soul. public. The inner, psychological world of man, his consciousness.

Dahl dictionary:

Soul. An immortal spiritual being gifted with reason and will. Mental and spiritual qualities of a person, conscience, inner feeling.

Dictionary of synonyms Alexandrova:

Soul- heart, spiritual (or inner) world.

As you can see, Dahl believed that the soul is primarily conscience; Alexandrova - that the soul is the heart.

Thanks to these interpretations, the story becomes clearer.

Ignatiev, who has lost his soul, no longer has a heart or conscience.

I asked the experts to write out the words with the root from the dictionaries -shower- . Let's listen to those of them that positively characterize a person. The expert reads:

soulful(Ozhegov) - full of sincere friendliness.

soulfulness(Alexandrova) - 1. responsiveness; 2. sincerity.

Darling(Ozhegov) - about a pleasant, attractive person.

I explain that the words spirit And soul the same root, although they differ in meaning. alternation x - w .

soulful(Ozhegov) - imbued with a sublime feeling.

Spiritualize(Ozhegov) - inspire, fill with high content, meaning, ennoble internally.

Animate(Ozhegov) - inspire, give spiritual strength.

animate(Ozhegov) - to be inspired, to feel a surge of spiritual strength.

Animation(Ozhegov) - uplifting spirit.

soul-loving(Dal) - philanthropic.

soul-saving(Dal).

Executor(Dal) - the executor of the last will of the deceased.

welcome(A student who worked with an etymological dictionary tells about the history of this word.) Actually the Russian word, goes back to cordial, which is formed with a connecting vowel O by adding glad- And stuffy (compare dialect stuffy- "mentally"), is a derivative with the suffix -n- from soul.

Soul-man(Dal) - Direct and kind.

Spirit(Ozhegov) - consciousness, thinking, mental abilities, that which induces to action, to activity.

The clergy are the servants of the church. The clergy are Orthodox, Catholic, Muslim. The clergy appeals first of all to the human soul.

Confessor(Ozhegov) - a priest who takes confession from someone.

Spiritual(Ozhegov) - related to mental activity, to the field of the spirit. spiritual interests.

Spiritual(Dal) - moral, moral, internal, sincere.

And this is not a complete list of words with a root -shower- .

Now let's hear from another expert. He will read the words with the same root, negatively characterizing a person.

heartlessness(Alexandrova) - heartlessness.

Soulless(Ozhegov) - without a sympathetic, lively attitude towards someone, something; heartless.

Soulless(Dal) - not gifted with a human soul; soulless, dead, dead or killed; acting as if there was no human soul in him, insensitive to the suffering of others, callous, cold, selfish.

I pay attention to this word. Dahl wrote as if about the “new” Ignatiev, as he appeared after the operation.

Indifferent(Ozhegov) - indifferent, indifferent, devoid of interest in something, and also expressing indifference, indifference.

Indifferent(Alexandrova) - insensitive, insensitive, cold, icy, cold.

Murderer(Ozhegov) - murderer, villain.

choke(Ozhegov) - kill by forcefully squeezing the throat.

Strangler(Ozhegov) - the one who suffocates.

insane(Dal).

soul-damaging(Dal).

Dushonka(Dal) - a miserable or low soul.

Having lost his soul, Ignatiev became a soulless man, he lost his conscience, i.e. became immoral. And immoral is shameless. So logically ends in the story the theme of conscience.

- And what is the grammatical category in the Russian language, where in the words-terms there is also a root -shower- ?(The grammatical category of animation is inanimateness. Animated nouns include the names of living beings, inanimate nouns are words denoting objects, not living beings.)

Ignatiev after the operation becomes an inanimate person - he has no soul. Tatyana Tolstaya convincingly shows what can be inanimate people, impudent, boorish, indifferent to someone else's misfortune. But there is animate things. For example, books. Writers died long ago, and their souls, thoughts, feelings reach us like the light of distant stars.

Russian literature has always addressed the soul, because the soul is the main thing, without which there is no person.

A.S. Pushkin:

No, I won't die...
Soul in the cherished lyre
My ashes will survive and decay will flee.

(Monument)

And the poet is right: the soul that expressed itself in wonderful verses continues to live in the memory of descendants.

M.Yu. Lermontov bitterly stated the fact:

The world did not understand my soul.
He doesn't need a soul.

Sergei Yesenin once came to a conclusion that horrified him:

I'm scared - because the soul passes,
Like youth and like love.

(Farewell to Mariengof)

The soul passes... It does not even need to be amputated. Over the years, people, unfortunately, become colder and more callous.

Young Vladimir Mayakovsky loved people so much that he wanted to give them his immortal soul:

to you i
I'll take my soul out
I'll crush it so that it's big! -
and bloody ladies, like a banner.

(A cloud in pants)

S.Ya. Marshak said:

Everything that a person touches
Illuminated by his living soul.

(Everything that a person touches...)

ON THE. Zabolotsky called on everyone:

Don't let your soul be lazy!
So as not to crush water in a mortar,
The soul must work
And day and night, and day and night!

(Don't let your soul get lazy...)

All the work of the greatest poet Nikolai Mikhailovich Rubtsov is addressed to the soul - this is the secret of the enduring love for him of many generations of readers.

In the poem "The Soul Keeps" the poet claims that it is "the soul ... that keeps all the beauty of the past."

In another masterpiece, In the Autumn Forest, he asks readers:

Trust me, I'm pure in heart...
And another quote:
And with all my soul, which is not a pity
Drown everything in the mysterious and sweet,
Light sadness takes over
How moonlight takes over the world.

(Night at home)

Sadness takes over the soul. Light sadness. Isn't that how longing seized the soul of Ignatiev - and therefore the hero went for surgery without regret? He immediately got rid of not only longing, but also contradictions, doubts, pity, compassion, and it is precisely these qualities that make a person a Human. Having decided on the operation, he signed his own death warrant, turning into an inanimate person - a living dead man.

- The whole story is about Ignatiev. Why do you think the last part of "After the operation" is the shortest, only one page?

After the students' answers, I summarize: the restless, hesitant, doubting Ignatiev was interesting to Tatyana Tolstaya, as well as to you and me. Having lost his soul of his own free will (and we remember the synonyms - conscience, heart) he ceases to occupy the writer, and she leaves him. And so it is clear that Ignatiev will not accomplish anything significant in life and will go to any goal over the corpses, disregarding anyone, pushing everyone with his elbows.

What do you think is the future fate of the hero? (He will earn a lot of money, buy a car and, driving through puddles, will pour water on passers-by, as they poured water on him. He will divorce his wife, put his son in a boarding school for the disabled and marry Anastasia - now he is as shameless as she is. Although, perhaps, he will no longer be able to make any woman truly happy: after all, Anastasia has already turned into Nastya for Ignatiev. Perhaps she will become an important dignitary, like that “big man” to whom the main character went to ask for advice.)

- Why did N. become the boss after the amputation of the soul? (Yes, because he stopped paying attention to the needs of people, to their suffering, their troubles.)

Our famous TV journalist V.V. Posner once said a wonderful phrase: "For some reason, a person, as soon as he becomes a boss, immediately ceases to be a person."

“Which is easier, gaining a soul or losing it?” (It’s easier to lose. Those operated from the doctor’s office go on their own. And those who have been transplanted with donor souls suffer deeply. They are being transported on gurneys: “...two women in white coats carried a writhing, nameless body, all in dried bloody bandages - and a face , and chest - only the mouth with a black lowing failure ... ".)

Could what happened in the story happen in real life? (No, it's fantasy.)

Therefore, "Clean Slate" is not just a story, but a fantastic story. I draw attention to the epigraph (words by Bernard Shaw). Of course, our medicine has not yet reached such a level as to extract the soul. But how many soulless people, inanimate people, subhumans are nearby - it is their fault that we live so hard and poorly.

– Why did Tolstaya never say anywhere in the story which organ should be amputated? (To make it more interesting to read. The reader must draw his own conclusions.)

This artistic technique is called inconsistency. Reticence is an incomplete statement, hushing up something (in a story.)

It remains to talk about the title of the work.

– How do you understand it? (The operated Ignatiev at the post office asks the girl for a blank sheet.)

What is he going to write? (Complaint. “Signal who is supposed to know that doctor Ivanov is taking bribes.”)

And this is the first thing a person is going to do after becoming a superman...

A blank sheet ... On it you can write "I remember a wonderful moment ..."; you can draw a musical staff, and after some time play the Moonlight Sonata from the sheet; one can deduce the theory of relativity or a system of chemical elements - and one can concoct an evil libel, a complaint, a vile anonymous letter, from which the fragile human heart will tremble and break.

Clean slate... So far clean. But letters, notes, numbers will definitely appear on it. And the main thing is not what is written, but who wrote and how he wrote: either a person with an open soul, or a creature who has already managed to ruin his soul.

And I want to finish the lesson with a wonderful poem by Adeline Adalis:

No, we are not born with a soul:
By life we ​​develop the soul.
This amendment is small
I will destroy the eternal illusion, -
Fear of antiquity and newness -
Fiction about frailty - do not believe:
We are born mortal,
To earn immortality.

Homework . Write out from the phraseological dictionary 15 phraseological units with the word soul(there are about a hundred of them in the dictionary).

Literature

1. Tolstaya Tatiana. Okkervil river. M., 2002.

2. Aleksandrova Z.E. Dictionary of synonyms of the Russian language. M., 1968.

3. Dal V.I. Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language. M., 2002.

4. Ozhegov S.I.. Dictionary of the Russian language. M., 1984.

5. Proverbs of the Russian people. Collection of Vladimir Dahl. In 2 vols. Volume I. M., 1984.

6. Phraseological dictionary of the Russian language, edited by Molotkov. M., 1978.

7. Shansky N.M. Brief etymological dictionary of the Russian language. M., 1971.

(Tambov)

The dream of the soul in Tatyana Tolstaya's story "Clean Slate"

The plot of Tatyana Tolstaya's story "Clean Sheet" is typical for the "epoch of the nineties": Ignatiev, exhausted by everyday troubles, experiences and longing for the unrealizable, decides on an operation to remove the suffering soul, wanting to become strong in this world. The result is predictable: he turns into one of those impersonal, soulless, whom Yevgeny Zamyatin wrote about in the science fiction novel We.

Losing the ability to compassion, the hero loses the main component of human happiness - the ability to make others happy, his near and far.

Soulless people really walk the earth. Literally. It has become fashionable now to write about zombies. More and more details on this topic appear in newspapers and magazines. But even earlier, Sergei Yesenin remarked:

"I'm scared - because the soul passes,

Like youth and like love.

The soul passes. You don't even need to "extract" it.

People often become colder, more callous with age.

Tatyana Tolstaya in her work asks the most important questions:

What happens to the soul?

In what depths, in what abysses does she hide?

Where does it go or how does it transform, what does this eternal longing for truth, goodness, beauty turn into?

Tatyana Tolstaya knows that there are no definite answers to these questions. To stage them, she uses (following Zamyatin) the techniques of fantasy.

Having presented her hero, who easily parted with his soul, in a new capacity with a blank sheet in her hands, the writer just as easily parted with him, without giving an answer, how can one overcome such a terrifying “cleansing of souls” that become indifferent. The hero has become a blank slate. On it one could write:

"And with all my soul, which is not a pity

Drown everything in the mysterious and sweet,

Light sadness takes over

How Moonlight Takes Over the World.

Ignatiev's soul was seized by melancholy. Anguish, doubts, pity, compassion - this is the way the soul exists in a person, because it is "a resident of unearthly places." Ignatiev fainthearted, could not stand her presence in himself. Having decided on the operation, he signed his own death warrant - he lost his immortal soul, lost everything (and he thought that he had gained everything!).

Let him be weak, but alive, doubting, but full of quivering paternal love and tenderness (“he jumped with a push and rushed through the door to the barred bed”), restless, but pitying his wife and bowing before her (“Wife - she is a saint”), Ignatiev was interesting auto RU.

Having ceased to suffer, he ceased to occupy the writer. What a soulless man he is, everyone knows.

On his blank sheet, he will write a complaint - the first thing he was going to do after the operation. And never again will come to him, will not sit on the edge of his bed Tosca, will not take his hand. Ignatiev will not feel how from the depths, from the abyss, "from somewhere out of the dugouts comes the Living". From now on, his destiny is loneliness and emptiness. Everyone leaves him - both the author and the reader, because now he is a dead man, "an empty, hollow body."

What did Tatyana Tolstaya want to tell us? Why is she talking about what she already knows? Here's how we see it.

In the Russian language, phrases have been established: “destroy your soul”, “save your soul”, that is, a person, being an earthly and mortal being, has the power to save or destroy his immortal unearthly soul.

There are five men (one of them is a boy) and five women in the story. Everyone is unhappy, especially women. The first is Ignatiev's wife. The second is Anastasia, his beloved. The third is the divorced wife of his friend. The fourth - came out in tears from the office of the big boss, the first to get rid of the soul. Fifth - listening to the persuasion of a dark-skinned man, who has "all living space in carpets."

"Woman", "wife" is the soul. But Tatyana Tolstaya never utters this word anywhere. It imposes a taboo. (Doesn't want to pronounce in vain?)

How does the story begin? - Wife is sleeping.

The soul of Ignatiev sleeps. She is sick and weak. It seems that Tatyana Tolstaya is talking about her, describing Ignatiev’s wife and child: “exhausted”, “weak sprout”, “little little stump”. Could Ignatiev become strong, bring his family out of pain and sorrow? It is unlikely, because it is said: "He who does not have it will be taken away from him."

Having removed the soul, Ignatiev immediately decides to get rid of what reminds her of her - from her visible incarnation - of her loved ones.

Look at the people closest to you. It is the visible embodiment of your invisible soul. How are they around you? It is the same with you and your soul.

He claims this idea in his small masterpiece - the story "Clean Slate".

Notes

1. Thick sheet. With

2. Yesenin with Mariengof (“There is frantic happiness in friendship ...” // Yesenin collected works: In 7 volumes - M .: Nauka, 1996. Vol. 4. Poems not included in the "Collected Poems" - 1996. - C 184-185.

3. Night at home // Collected works in three volumes: T.1. – M.: Terra, 2000. – S. 78.

	I write, I create, I live - part 3 or the biography and work of the great Russian people All parts: Culture in Russia

"Clean Water" - Search for solutions in the field of providing the population with clean water. Water is dispensed into standard bottles of 5-6 liters. Works in automatic mode. Water purification technology. Service card. Water purification system based on membrane technology. Water is dispensed into standard bottles of 5-19 liters.

"External leaf structure" - Questions for repetition. Leaf venation. Explain the difference between sessile and petiolate leaves. What type of venation is characteristic of dicotyledonous plants? modified leaves. What type of venation is characteristic of monocotyledonous plants? List the main parts of a leaf. In monocot plants, the root system is _______, leaf venation is ___________, ____________.

"Franz Liszt" - Liszt is considered a paramount figure in the history of music. Hungarian pianist and composer (1811–1886) And in 1847 F. Liszt undertook a farewell concert tour. In 1844, Liszt became bandmaster at the ducal court in Weimar. Most of the composer's piano legacy is transcriptions and paraphrases of music by other authors.

"Möbius strip" - Möbius is one of the founders of modern topology. Art and technology. The Möbius strip is a symbol of mathematics, Which serves as the crown of the highest wisdom... An incredible new library project in Astana, Kazakhstan. This sculpture is made up of many cans. Director of the Leipzig Astronomical Observatory, A. Möbius was a versatile scientist.

"Essay on leaves" - My autumn. I. Turgenev. Linden Poplar Rowan Maple Lilac Oak. Leaf movement. What are the colors of the leaves. Clusters of rowan. I. Bunin. Bronze Herbal Brown Light Green Malachite Scarlet. Themes of essays. What are the leaves whispering about? Which trees have shed their leaves? Autumn sounds. But the pond has already frozen... Red. Yellow Orange Red Green Lemon Orange.

"Lesson of clean water" - Discussion on the topic of the lesson. Leonardo da Vinci. Pure water lesson. Tasks: Sinkwine on the topic "Clean Water". Organizational moment. Discussion of measures to improve the ecological water environment of the region. The result of the lesson: compiling a syncwine. Rain water, spring water Flows, freezes, evaporates Source of life Liquid.