FROM DEATH RAYS TO THE RAYS OF LIFE: ABOUT THE EFROSIMOV''S DEVICE IN M.A. BULGAKOV''s PLAY "ADAM AND EVE"
The article is devoted to the consideration of M. A. Bulgakov's play "Adam and eve" in the context of the theme of death rays which was popular in science fiction in 1920-1930 years. As a nearest literary context of "Adam and Eve" the author actualizes novels "Ektanar and Mosetta" by Jean de La Ira, "The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin" by A. Tolstoy, "Death Rays" by N. Karpov and the story of Jack London "The Enemy of The World". In all these writings there is a topic of superweapon with the help of which the characters possessing Napoleonic ideas want to get world domination. The problem in almost all cases is: whose interests a scientific discovery serves and how it is alienated from the scientist-inventor. In Bulgakov's play, the theme of "miracle rays" is provided by the device of Professor Efrosimov which is fundamentally different from a number of similar devices, because it promotes not death, but rather the preservation of life in a situation of global catastrophe unleashed by political forces whose arena is the story. Bulgakov's play is seen in the background of radio, photos and cinepoetry actualizing various devices as metatropic by which a culture describes itself. In this context Efrosimov’s device is opposed to its predecessors in the same manner as culture (literature, cinema, theater) is opposed to history. The same can be said about the ray and the optical cameras in the story "The Fatal Eggs" accumulating culture memory and its creative potential. The play "Adam and Eve" brings the reader back not only to early novels of Bulgakov, but also to many other literary plots, resurrecting cultural memory of the reader in spite of the devastating processes that occur in the history actual to the writer. Scientific novelty of the article is the actualization of literary subtexts of the play "Adam and eve" fundamentally changing the apparent meaning of the play.