“Nostalgia is a Longing for Paradise”: The Issue of Nostalgia in Collector of Paradise by Evgeny Chizhov

Abstract

This article deals with the subject of nostalgia in the novel The Collector of Paradise (2019) by Evgeny Chizhov. The introduction presents a brief overview of research on nostalgia, while highlighting its various aspects and typologies.

In the analysis of the text, the main emphasis is placed on the portraits of the main characters: Kirill, a regular at the Moscow flea markets, and his mother, who suffers from Alzheimer’s. The most distinctive feature of these characters is their relationship to time, the past and memory. They both illustrate different aspects of returning to the past and detachment from the present. Their sense of time can be said to represent different types of nostalgia. The plot of the novel takes place in the 1990s, when, as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the entire future of the characters remained in the past. However, the bygone epoch is not idealised, therefore the novel cannot be labelled as nostalgic.

Nostalgia interests the writer as a widespread phenomenon with the hallmarks of a disease that prevents living in the present. The heroes’ longing for a different epoch can also be viewed as frustration resulting from the confinement of a human being in a limited time, which makes it impossible to live for eternity.