The Image of the World in A. P. Platonov’s Short Story Nikita: A Mythopoetic Aspect

Purpose. The article analyzes the story Nikita, which is important for the work of A. Platonov. It was originally named The Kind Whale and was included into the cycle Good People.

Results. The authors identify the mythological picture of the world implementation features in the story. It is noted that the writer represents the reality through a perception of a five-year-old boy who gives animation, reason and feelings to visible objects around him, which are perceived by the hero through kinship terms, proper nouns, and other linguistic units mastered by this age. In Nikita's mythological picture of the world there are “his own” things, which are associated with the image of a house and a yard, fenced off from the “stranger” things. Being appointed daily to the role of master by his mother, Nikita must preserve the harmony of his world – to live quietly, that is, in kinship with “his” world, not allowing anyone else and not depriving of life named, and therefore animate, inhabitants. Violation of the maternal covenant has negative consequences: “one’s own” and “someone else’s” change places, instilling fear in Nikita, which he had not experienced before, because he lived in the world of objects and phenomena created and named by him, and therefore, endowed with life.

Conclusion. The opposition “life – death” acquires an additional meaning from A. Platonov, including the opposition “kinship – orphanhood”: the one who is related to the world remains alive, and orphanhood is perceived as detachment from the world, loss of connection with it, which is equal to death.

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