Sacralization of the everyday life in Andrei Bitov’s short story „The Flying Dutchman”

Abstract

The Flying Dutchman (Letuchiy Gollandets) from the collection Wheel (Koleso) belongs to the forgotten part of Andrei Bitov’s memoir-like prose. This short story stands as an epitaph for a Soviet speedway rider Gennadiy Vyunov. In his story, Bitov adds some sacred value to both speedway and the particular rider, until the sport becomes  a supernatural phenomenon. The given article aims at analyzing the story and the means used to conduct the sacralization process on various levels: the plot, the language, the complex of intertextual relations, and therefore, presenting the unknown side of the well-known author of Pushkin House