The image of the goldfish in the structure of Pushkin's text by Sasha Chorny

The article discusses the semantics and transformation of the image of the golden fish in the structure of the Pushkin text studied by Sasha Chorny during his emigration period. The author outlines the ways in which this image is represented in various genre-stylistic systems of Sasha Chorny's work in the 1920s and 1930s. The subject of the study includes: a) the poetics of the golden fish image in dialogue with folklore and Pushkin's traditions; b) the specificity of the embodiment of the image in satirical prose (the cycle "Our Telegrams"), essays ("Our Children"), a children's poem ("Pushkin's Nurse"), and lyric poetry ("The Tale of the Golden Fish (New Version)") by Sasha Chorny; c) the axiological aspect of the image; d) the biographical context of Sasha Chorny's address to Pushkin's heritage. The aim of the work is to determine the ways of understanding the folklore-literary tradition in dialogue with the legacy of A.S. Pushkin. The results of the research can be used in classes on the history of Russian literature of the 20th century. The study was conducted using comparative-historical, structural-semantic, and biographical methods, as well as intertextual analysis. The theoretical foundation of the research is based on the works of M.V. Antonova, A.G. Loshakov, V.Ya. Propp, Yu.M. Lotman, M.A. Zhirkova, and others. The article proposes, for the first time, an analysis of the golden fish as a meaning-forming Pushkin image in the works of Sasha Chorny, which is what gives the work its novelty. It was found during the research that the image of the golden fish in Sasha Chorny's migr texts undergoes multi-level transformation. This image is understood both satirically (the cycle "Our Telegrams") and metaphorically, coming closer to the image of the lost homeland (the essay "Our Children"). The golden fish is presented to the writer as a crucial element of Russia's cultural code, a linking element between the present and the past. There is also a reduction of the magical plot ("The Tale of the Golden Fish (New Version)"), as a result of which the fish loses its miraculous power and becomes a detail of migr everyday life. The author of the article concludes that Sasha Chorny's golden fish symbolizes Russian culture in exile: having lost its magical power and connection with the "sea-ocean" of the homeland, the image, as set forth by A.S. Pushkin, remains preserved in the salvational space of memory, language, and literature, hoping for a future return.