E. S. Sedova
helens82@mail.ru
South Ural State Humanitarian Pedagogical University, Chelyabinsk, Russian Federation
Comparative analysis of the “Tea at the Midland” short stories
by David Constantine and “It’s Beginning to Hurt”by James Lasdun
Abstract: The article is devoted to the comparative analysis of the short stories “Tea at the Midland” by David Constantine and “It’s Beginning to Hurt” by James Lasdun. Little is known about these writers to a Russian reader – there are translations of some poems and a short story “Tea at the Midland” by D. Constantine. The works by J. Lasdun are not translated into Russian. The relevance of this article is the analysis of these short stories in a comparative aspect which has been conducted for the first time. The method of comparative analysis allows specifying both common and different. We have come to the conclusion that both writers in their short stories show a typical situation of adultery. The main idea in these stories is the loss of love: in Constantine’s story it is the deadlock of the characters’ relationship, their separation (loss of romance in their relationship, misunderstanding and divergence on various issues); in Lasdun’s story it is a revelation of lost love and a life that was never to be, which is shown through the main character’s memories. In the course of the analysis, we highlight ekphrastic discourse in Constantine’s story, which allows us to observe the problem from a different angle, find common grounds between the eternal and everyday life, and Lasdun’s naturalistic discourse (entering the sphere of psychology). Thus, we have come to the conclusion that mundane unremarkable life hides the drama of the characters’ everyday existence in the texts of both writers.
Keywords: David Constantine, James Lasdun, comparative analysis, adultery, cultural code, symbolics, psychologism.
Paper submitted: June 4, 2022.
For citation: Sedova E. S. (2022) Comparative analysis of the “Tea at the Midland” short stories by David Constantine and “It’s Beginning to Hurt” by James Lasdun. Russian Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 24-32. DOI: io.570i5/issni998-5320.2O22.i6.4.3.
