Dom nad rzeką Moskwą jako architektoniczny i literacki znak pamięci

Abstract

The House on the Embankment as an Architectural and Literary Sign of Memory

The huge constructivist apartment house built in the 1930s in downtown Moscow, on the bank of the Moskva river, owes its present‑day name to Yury Trifonov’s novel The House on the Embankment (1976). Being an example of architecture typical of the Stalinist regime and a symbol of the regime’s triumph and dominance over man, the house functions as a very special character in Trifonov’s novel. It represents both individual and collective memory, shows the destructive influence of history and politics on the life of an individual and the whole nation. The House on the Embankment, related to the archetypal image of house, which is traditionally perceived as a space of love, safety and family ties, emerges in Trifonov’s novel as an anti‑house, a dehumanizing space in which the intergenerational relations are destroyed and which signifies man’s submission to and fear of authorities.