ABSTRACT
Morethanenoughhasbeenwrittenaboutthecamiva1esquecharacterof VenediktErofeev'sMoscowtotheEndoftheLine.Indeed,thebook's connectiontothe"festivetradition,"toblasphemoustravestiesthatwove togethersacredimagesandthemotifsofthe"lowerbodilystratum,"to questionsofthe"seriouslaughter"ofthe"ultimatequestionsofbeing,"are allmorethanapparent.However,itistellingthatallthecriticswhohave writtenaboutErofeev'scamivalizationareforcedtomakeallowancesfor theunique,nontraditionalsemanticsofthesetraditionalformsinMoscow totheEndoftheLine.ThuswhenSvetlanaGaiser-Shnitmanpointsoutthe book'sconnectionwiththe"genericmemory"ofMenippeansatire,she notesthatanequallylargeroleinthe"poem's"poeticsisplayedbythe semanticstructuresofsuchdecidedlyuncamivalesquegenresasthespiritualquest,prosepoems,ballads,andmysteryplays(Gaiser-Shnitman 1984:257-65).Theauthorcallshistexta''poema"(narrativeorepic poem),whichevidentlyreferstoGogol'sDeadSouls,intumreferringto Dante'sDivineComedyandtheepicpoemsofHomer.ElenaSmimova notesthatMoscowtotheEndoftheLinetrulycorrespondstotheGogolian understandingofthisgenre;Erofeev'sprotagonist
goesbeyondthenarrowconfinesofexistencetothelimitlessdimensionof being....Andinthisnewdimension,Venichka'striptoPetushkiprovesto bemerelyapretextforthebroadestpossibleformulationofthequestionof themeaningandessenceofhumanlifethroughouthumanhistory.Thisisthe solutiontothetroublingriddleoftheword"poema."Ishouldaddthatthe sameholdstrueforDeadSouls.(1990:59)
Mark Altshuller adds that the "journey from Moscow to Petushki is the soul's symbolic journey from darkness to light, the journey Gogol had in mind for Chichikov, and which Dante carried out" (1982: 83).
