EDN
KHTGYI

ACADEMIC JOURNAL
|
ISSN 2542-1077 (Print) ISSN 1994-5973 (Online) |
Russian literature and literature of the peoples of the Russian Federation |
| Matveeva I. I. | Moscow City University |
|
Keywords: Andrei Platonov non-classical satire dialogical satire gastronomic code artificial food grotesque The Hurdy-Gurdy |
Summary: The article explores a distinctive satirical strand in Andrei Platonov’s works of the 1920s–1930s associ-
ated with the depiction of food and food supply, an aspect that has not previously been subjected to systematic analysis.
The relevance of the study is due to the need to fill this gap. The article is aimed at identifying the innovative nature
of Platonov’s gastronomic satire as an integral system of a non-classical type, drawing on his journalism, poetry, early
prose, and the play The Hurdy-Gurdy. The article explores how the theme of food functions as a key tool for socio-po-
litical criticism and expressing the writer’s philosophical vision of the essence of communist society. Employing histor-
ical-biographical, historical-literary, contextual, and intertextual methods, the study situates gastronomic satire within
Platonov’s biography, the classical satirical tradition, and the cultural and ideological context of the era. Motif and plot
analysis is applied to the gastronomic motifs of The Hurdy-Gurdy, which structure the plot and serve as the foundation
for political allegory. The article demonstrates that Platonov’s gastronomic satire combines traditional comedy tech-
niques with the dialogical principle of merging the author’s and characters’ voices, and that it couples unsparing social
criticism with philosophical ambivalence and compassion for the “little man”. The findings confirm that the writer’s
gastronomic satire constitutes an integral artistic system of a non-classical type and a distinctive form of social thought. The significance of these results lies in introducing a new dimension of Platonov’s satirical heritage into scholarly discourse and in establishing a framework for analyzing satire of this type in twentieth-century Russian literature. |
KHTGYI
|
Displays: 48; |