Pierwiastek autobiograficzny w nowelach W.I.Dala

Abstract

The paper deals with the problem of the autobiographical element and its functions in Dal’s work. The author’s thesis about the autobiographical character of Dal’s short stories is based on the analysis of two of his stories: Sailor Poceluev and Vakh Sidorov Tshaykin. A comparison between the contents of these stories and biographical documents helped the author to trace a distinct similarity between the fate of the protagonists of the stories and the writer’s biography. The paper discusses also the question of the possible dependence of Vakh Sidorov Tshaykin on Gogol’s Dead Souls, as there is also a „dead souls” theme in Dal’s story. The author discusses two opposed points of view upon this subject. According to him, Smirnova’s opinion (she thinks that Dal cannot be held responsible for the authorship of this theme) is the more convincing of the two.