The Genesis of Nikolay Erdman's Play "Suicide"

The paper considers the genesis of Nikolay Robertovič Erdman`s play “The Suicide” which was written in 1928. It will be shown how several Russian prosaic and drama texts of 19th century affected the poetics along with ... of “The Suicide”. The farce which was also inherent in this play deeply related to certain literary traditions introduced long before creation of the “The Suicide”. The aim of this project is to define the origin of a number of specific literary techniques presented in Erdman`s text drawing on literary and historical context. I will begin with by identifying precisely which texts and motives reflected in “The Suicide” along with the inherent traits of the genre. More than that, I will clarify how did Nikolay Erdman redefined the traditions of previous era accordingly to the contemporary period. An identifiction of several aspects of “The Suicide” will help to identify a set of texts reflected in Erdman`s play and will provide basis for the further research. I intend to rely on some key factors (e.g. in consideration will be taken an exploration of the sum of context peculiarities, researching specific poetics features, treating the traits of plot along with the variety of methods were used in order to enhance comic effect) which should be taken in account in order to mark some principal links forming a frame for the comparison. More than that, it seems to be urgent to incorporate the knowledge about the features of Erdman`s text intertextuality in order to study more about the literary and historical background which should become a foundation for the further analysis.By carrying a comparative research of literary sources and a complex of texts, I will attempt to depict as abudantly as possible the major links concealed in Erdman`s play “The Suicide”.