UNCERTAINTY AS A STRUCTURAL PROPERTY: ON THE FOREWORD "FROM THE EDITOR" TO "TALES OF BELKIN"
It is shown that one of the main structural properties of the foreword "From the Editor" is uncertainty and/or incomplete embodiment of entity as a whole. This reveals itself on different levels of text including inner logical contradictions, the way names are presented in the text, motifs of partial or fractional realization. This is also inherent to narrators of "Tales of Belkin" (lieutenant-colonel as incomplete colonel, girl as an incomplete woman). The similar property manifests itself in the epigraph to "Tales of Belkin" that consists of words of minor (inferior noble). We dwell upon close correspondences between this foreword and "The Shot". It is shown that in some aspects the text gives grounds for identification of Belkin with a lieutenant-colonel I.L.P.) whereas in some others it creates obstacles to this. Thus there is a close analogy between uncertainty of the Belkin's image and uncertainty as a structural property of the foreword. We also pointed out that the set of initials of narrators is an anagram of the surname of a fictitious author.