Japanese Students Reading Stories by A. Platonov: The Experience of Dialogical Understanding

Based on emotional psychology, the article examines how Japanese students perceive the works of A. Platonov. We asked 53 survey participants to read his stories “The Unknown Flower (Fairy Tale)” and “Return” and to answer questions about the degree of absorption, appreciation and to what degree they were moved in connection with what they read. Survey participants also wrote in free form, their opinions about the artistic features of the stories as well as about the worldview depicted in them. A quantitative analysis of the results shows that, in general, Japanese students found it difficult to sympathize with Platonic stories, although they demonstrated immersion in the text and appreciated the works. Qualitative analysis shows that the students entered into a dialogic understanding, quite freely developing their thoughts about the theme and expression of the stories. Students paid particular attention to three thematic elements: a) suffering and its reward (in “The Unknown Flower”), b) multiple points of views and human relations (in “Return”), c) a sense of the uncontrollability of life (in “Returns”). Given that Japanese students read Platonov’s stories without sufficient knowledge of their historical and cultural contexts, one can conclude that these thematic elements can provide material for discussing what constitutes a “universal” appeal (in terms of accessibility to readers of different times and cultural backgrounds) of Platonov’s literary works.