Narushennoe detstvo i ranee materinstvo u Andreja Platonova. Rasskaz "Takyr" (1934)

The aim of this article is to examine and clarify the significance of two categories first formulated by Andrej Platonov in the short story "Takyr" (1934), namely violated childhood and premature motherhood. These two themes allow the author to construct a series of female characters—Zarrin-Tadzh and Dzumal’—who serve as prototypes for later heroines such as Tamara-mother in "The Passage of Time" (Tecen’e vremeni, early 1930s), Gjul’chataj and Ajdym in "Dzhan" (1934–1935), and the Kurdish woman Fat’ma in the essay "The Image of the Future Man" (Obraz buduschego celoveka, 1937). In Platonov’s broader poetics, motherhood is generally depicted as an exclusively adult experience, wholly detached from the world of childhood. In "Takyr," however, the groundwork is laid for a new conception of motherhood, one deeply rooted in pre-revolutionary Turkmen tribal society and in the system of slavery that condemns childhood to violence and oppression. On this basis, the article will explore how Platonov connects these two newly articulated categories to two constant motifs in his work, namely memory and freedom, which in "Takyr" acquire a distinctly new configuration.