By the example of A. de Saint-Exupéry’s “Night Flight” novel
Summary
Davit V. Petrosyan-Doctor of Philological Sciences
The article discusses several peculiarities of the author’s inner time within the artistic narrative.
According to the theorists, the time living within a person reflects the path of his soul, emphasizes the necessity for the existence of an individual in earthly life.
The inner time gets specific shapes in the artistic composition. In general, between the concepts of “the author’s inner time” and “artistic time” there are some nuance differences. It concerns especially the time borders of the author and the composition’s heroes, the ways of their manifestation, the process of the activities development within the narrative, etc.
A. de Saint-Exupéry’s “Night Flight” novel is one of the characteristic expressions of what is said above, where the writer successfully combined the characteristic features of the author’s inner and artistic times of the narrative. To this end, in addition to the heroes, two deep images of nature – heaven and night were masterfully created in the novel.
As space, the heaven enlivens when it fills with time. Accordingly, each hero is shaped by his own spatial-time measurements. Typologically, the heroes are engaged in two groups:
a) heroes who look at the heaven from the earth;
b) heroes (pilot, radioman) who watch the earth from the heaven.
Accordingly, in line with the spiritual state of the characters, first of all the importance of a permanent present, and in fateful moments – the heavenly time leading to eternity is given importance to. In the most dramatic part of the narrative, the earth and the body of the hero remain in the present, and the soul moves on to the “doors of paradise”– to the eternity.
The night also plays a key role in the novel. With the personification of the latter, new layers are opened in the interrelations of the heaven, earth and heroes. The night obtains particular importance with its mysterious and unpredictable qualities, which enable the author to reunite characters in the context of the inner time at the end of the narrative and to create a collective biography absorbed in artistic time. These, after all, reflect the continuity of human existence living in earthly and heavenly times.