E. I. Kopteva
eleonora_kopteva@mail.ru
Omsk State Pedagogical University, Omsk, Russian Federation
Abstract:
This study presents an intertextual analysis of the novel by Omsk writer A. S. Sorokin “The Laughter of
the Yellow Devil” (1914). The problem of the artistic method and genre-style unity of Sorokin’s prose is being actualized.
The narrative techniques characteristic of the writer are comprehended: the weakening of plot connections, the transition
from detailed naturalistic descriptions to dreams and phantasmagoria, the determining role of pretexts, the imposition
of allusions, and so on. Sorokin creates an image of the world, referring to the experiments of the expressionists,
which leads to a change in the status and role of the hero in the work. A comparative analysis of the story and works
of M. Yu. Lermontov, N. V. Gogol, F. M. Dostoevsky, A. P. Chekhov is presented, which allows us to come to conclusions
about the impact of the ideological system of Russian literature of the XIX century. on the artistic world of Sorokin. The
writer, referring to famous ideas and plots, undergoes their transformation, continuing the dialogue not only with his predecessors, but in general with the Christian tradition. The artist’s consciousness correlates biblical, mythological,
cultural-historical, literary, philosophical-aesthetic contexts, determining the ontological and existential problems of the
transition period of the early twentieth century. The center of the writer’s artistic system remains the personal awareness
of being, the need to determine an independent ego in the tragic experience of epoch-making shifts.
Keywords:
Anton Sorokin, The Laughter of the Yellow Devil, naturalism, symbolism, expressionism, philosophical
dialogue, biblical and literary allusions.
Paper submitted: March 31, 2026.
For citation:
Kopteva E. I. (2026) A. S. Sorokin’s novella “The Laughter of the Yellow Devil”: From Naturalism
to Symbolism. Russian Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 43–51. DOI: 10.57015/issn1998-
5320.2026.20.2.4
