A traumatic experience and the anthropological leitmotif. Guzel Yakhina

The article takes a close look at the principles behind the work of the contemporary novelist and scriptwriter G. Yakhina, attempting analysis that goes beyond the context of modern literature and exploring the ties with 20th-c. existential philosophy, including the categories of memory, transgressive experience, ethnic identity and the anthropological leitmotif. Yakhina’s latest novel, Train to Samarkand [Eshelon na Samarkand] receives particular attention. According to Sultanov, it is written with reliance on aforementioned concepts, namely, the narration is concentrated around a core that represents the book’s values and semantics, acknowledging that man remains the measure of all things. A suffering human being (a permanent subject in all of Yakhina’s books), regardless of his or her political stance, origins or faith, stays self-sufficient, a quality that allows Yakhina’s characters to preserve their humanity despite oppressive historical circumstances.