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Językoznawstwo baner

No. 2/27 (2026)

Articles

“The courtiers’ language” as autobiographical motif in the prose of L. Petrushevskaya

DOI: https://doi.org/10.25312/j.10649  [Google Scholar]
Published: 2026-06-24

Abstract

This article examines the “courtiers’ language” as an autobiographical motif in the prose of L. Petrushevskaya and identifies its role in the preservation of family and collective memory. Three autobiographical texts by the writer are analysed: the novella The Little Girl from the Metropol Hotel, the essay “Serebryany Bor”, and the preface to the book History Through the Eyes of KROKODIL. Words. 1922–1937. The study employs a comparative linguistic method combined with motif analysis, comparing the “courtiers’ language” with descriptions of children’s secret languages and the secret language of the Old Believers. The analysis demonstrates that the “courtiers’ language” is a variant of the tarabarsky cipher – a consonant-substitution code – and operates in Petrushevskaya’s texts simultaneously as a means of covert communication under Stalinist repression and as a narrative device for reconstructing the historical atmosphere of the era. It is concluded that this motif enables the writer to interweave personal biography with the collective trauma of the period, transforming a secret code into a symbol of memory of the repressions of the 1930s.

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