Staff of Figures and Jewish Characters in Dina Rubina’s Novels

Year 2018, Volume: 1 Issue: 2, 248 - 260, 30.12.2018

Arzu Cebe

Abstract

Dina Rubina is one of the most important Jewish woman writers of the Russian literature in the 21st century. She was born in Tashkent, lived in Russia for many years and migrated to Israel due to her marriage, where she lives currently. Socio-cultural life, traditions and customs, religious beliefs and even languages used by people where she lived and lives, accompanied the writer in her literary life. All these were an immense source, which she masterfully used in her works. Having a rich cultural background derived from different societies, the writer handles such cultural elements in her works within mythological and folkloric motifs. In modern style novels, the existence of such elements granted them cultural diversity. 

As Rubina has mentioned in her interviews very often, some topics are prominent in her literary works: As a woman writer, who prefers to touch upon topics as children, women and family life, Rubina’s novels usually shine out with their woman characters. Some of such characters carry autobiographic elements – imprints from the writer’s life or her personal features. For example, writer N from the novel “See the Messiah is Coming”, the main character of the novel “Syndicate” – Dina, also the main character of the novel “Last Wild Boar of the Pontevedra Forest” – Dina of Matnasa resemble Dina Rubina herself with some of their features. Despite that Rubina doesn’t accept such resemblance between writers and one of their characters (usually, main characters), it is commonly known that sometimes characters inevitably carry such imprints. 

Together with women, men also play important roles in Rubina’s novels. Another attention grabbing element in her novels is the characteristic resemblance between some male figures. Lenya in “The Sunny Part of the Street” and Boris in “The Petrushka Syndrome” remarkably resemble each other both in life experience and personal features. Both of them cannot get favorable answer to their loves, but they always stand by the women they are in love with. 

If to handle the staff of figures in Rubina’s novels as a whole, we can observe a common feature in almost all of them, especially in main characters. Thus, almost all of them are artists or performers. For instance, the main character in “Leonardo’s Manuscript” – Anna is a circus performer, Petya in “The Petrushka Syndrome” is a puppeteer, Kordovin in “Kordova’s White Dove” and Vera in “The Sunny Part of the Street” are painters, while the main character in the “Russian Canary” – Leon is a tenor with a beautiful voice. So, main characters in all novels are prominent in various art spheres. Many of them are musicians, which can easily be explained, if to take into consideration the writer’s own profession – musicianship, which also enables Rubina to convey her musical knowledge into her novels conveniently and in details. For example, in the trilogy named “The Russian Canary”, Barishnya the nanny and Esphir are pianists, while Etinger the Elder plays in clarinet. Besides, stated in the words of other characters in the novel, Etinger’s grandson Leon Etinger is a tenor with a canary voice. Rubina narrates all these details as a person with professional education in music. 

The large number of people in the staff of figures in Rubina’s novels is able sometimes challenge readers in the sense that it can sometimes be difficult to track their features, deeds and the relations between them. Despite their episodic roles, they are all players within the topic related to Ilya and his family. 

Reviewing Rubina’s novels, we can observe that not only women, men and children, but also inanimate things as puppets, mirrors, portraits and paintings can be put into prominence within the plot.

Dina Rubina’nın Romanlarında Şahıs Kadrosu ve Yahudi Karakterler

Abstract

Dina
Rubina, XXI yüzyıl Rus edebiyatının en önemli Yahudi kadın yazarlarından
biridir. Yazar Taşkent’te doğmuş, uzun yıllar Rusya’da yaşadıktan sonra evlilik
nedeniyle İsrail’e göç etmiş ve yaşamını orada sürdürmektedir. Yaşadığı
ülkelerdeki insanların sosyal ve kültürel yaşamları, gelenek, görenek ve
adetleri, dini inanışları, kullanmış oldukları farklı diller, yazara edebi sanatında
eşlik etmiş, yazar bu kaynaktan ustaca yararlanmıştır. Dina Rubina’nın nereyse
tüm eserleri hem İsrail’de hem de Rusya’da basılmış, ayrıca Fransa,
Bulgaristan, Estonya ve Çekya’da yazarın otuzdan fazla kitabı tercüme edilerek
yayımlanmıştır. Bu nedenle yazar, hem Rus edebiyatında hem de modern İsrail
edebiyatında önemli yer tutmaktadır. Bu çalışmanın amacı, Dina Rubina
romanlarının şahıs kadrosunda yer verilen karakterlerin romanın kurgu ya da
olay örgüsünde üstlendikleri sorumlulukları göz önünde bulundurularak kişilik
yapılarının, analiz edilmesidir. Çalışmada, yazarın romanlarındaki şahıs
kadrosu; Kadın Karakterler, Erkek Karakterler ve Çocuk Karakterler adlı alt
başlıklar altında ele alınacaktır. Yazarın romanlarının şahıs kadrosuna dâhil
edilen kişiler; ana ve yardımcı karakterler, karakterlerin vurgulanan belirgin
özellikleri, iç ve dış dünyaları, psikolojik ve karakteristik yapıları
açısından incelenecektir. 

Keywords

Rubina, Roman, Şahıs Kadrosu, Karakter, Kadınlar

References

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