alternative culture. Encyclopedia
Other Prose
corpus of texts formed in the 1970s and 1980s outside the official Soviet literature, ignored and not recognized by her.
It is important to immediately distinguish between D. P. and dissident creativity: it was fundamentally non-ideological from the very beginning. All-corrosive, gloomy skepticism has become a way of seeing here, indifference, multiplied by doubt, has become the cornerstone. Again, this was not the doubt of the subversives, but rather something like Sartre's existential nausea. According to “other texts”, one could understand that the authors were sick of everything: moralism and politics, pathos and lyrical confession, classical literature and religion, the institution of the family and any institutions in general. The teacher's tradition of Russian classics was especially resented.
The man in D.P. didn't sound proud, he didn't sound at all - he was more like... stank. I singled out the physiological with all the pores. But at the same time he remained absolutely closed, his actions had no justifications or motivations. Hence - permanent insanity. The protagonists of D.P. are often inadequate, simply insane or subject to the most unusual manias and phobias. At the same time, the authors simply do not consider it necessary to waste time on their more detailed drawing. Enough name, age, gender, a couple of portrait features - almost like in the questionnaire. The habitual structure of speech also breaks: the obscene syllable becomes as common a technique as, for example, zaum (before that, securely buried in the era of the futurists) or “stream of consciousness”.
The violence reflected in the speech responds with violence that overwhelms the plots. Murder and suicide are no longer something extraordinary; interesting ways and details. And even much more: beatings and humiliation, detailed pornographic scenes, all kinds of sexual perversions, torture, cannibalism, coprophagia. Again, too human reactions to all this turn out to be superfluous: all the same secretions from too much shock, cries of pain or pleasure are enough. Even more enjoyment. Indeed, the heroes of D.P. are able to enjoy absolutely everything. They savor life, they savor death. But - no misanthropy. D.P. (and this is her strange relationship with Dostoevsky, even more so with Gogol) is internally scandalous, she is replete with absurd situations. Even the most creepy scenes are described in such a way that they look first of all as a monstrous absurdity, rather, they do not frighten, but cause a smirk. Such, for example, are Yuri Mamleev's "poor little men" who turn own life to the wild circus. However, Mamleev, who declares moderate conservatism, still has some kind of reflection. Vladimir Sorokin and Yegor Radov go further: all humiliations, insults and torments pass as part of a chilly game, no one worries about anything, they only react to various stimuli. Here all the characters are already something like a humanoid ornament on the surface of language games. Sorokin endlessly shuffles styles, using one, but always trouble-free technique: at some point, a carefully constructed, linear narrative that looks like all Russian literature at once goes crazy. And a monstrous mess begins, with all the signs already listed; however, most of all Sorokin loves human feces and anthropophagy, Radov loves drugs. Accordingly, for one, the world looks like a scene from a distorted socialist realist novel, and for another, it looks like a hallucination of an experienced "junkie". Yulia Kisina offered a delicious cocktail of psychedelics and good mysticism in her stories. Sasha Sokolov’s approach is typologically similar to Sorokin’s, but here the carefully cherished old-fashioned style becomes too intrusive: characters, situations, metaphors are tailored whimsically and outlandishly for harsh Russian places, but they become boring even faster than the monsters of Sorokin and Mamleev.
Close to D.P. and Viktor Erofeev, who skillfully combines pornography, eschatology and moderate traditionalism in his novels. However, what he does best is to present a bill to the Russian classics for any reason. The specter of moralism hovering over it seems to frighten Erofeev much more than the most dashing antics of his colleagues. Not so with Eduard Limonov. His earliest, most famous texts are filled with the deepest sincere despair; he swears, rebels and torments his flesh with ever new pleasures, because he is afraid to find himself in a bourgeois, predictable situation - hence his further famous transformation into his own hero, rebuilding life according to the intended plot.
Of course, D.P., who had run out of bile and poison, did not initially claim to be folded into a particular school. But it is enough that she cursed and vomited over all the centuries of violent goal-setting and sensitive leadership, censorship and revolutionary narrow-mindedness, guild subordination and schoolboy duty. That is, a kind of sanation of literature took place, largely one-sided, but sufficient to free the next generation of writers from the heavy ghosts of the past.
Modern Russian literature is heterogeneous and diverse in its aesthetic principles and philosophical attitudes. It develops in line with three artistic systems - realism, modernism and postmodernism, which have their own trends. The most popular and fruitful of them is realism.
The artistic system of realism includes three directions (currents): neoclassical (traditional), conventionally metaphorical, "other prose".
"Other prose". In the early 1980s, works of authors appeared in literature who opposed their ideas to generally accepted ones. Official literature put a person on a pedestal, sang about him as the creator and creator of his own destiny and happiness, made him believe that one person is able to change the world. In their works, representatives of the "other prose" showed the complete dependence of the Soviet person on the domestic environment, he is just a small cog in a huge machine.
Three currents can be distinguished in "other prose": "historical", "natural", and "ironic avant-garde". But this division is rather arbitrary, since the features of the works of one trend may be inherent in the works of authors of a different direction.
The works of the "historical" trend showed the events of history from a new perspective. Despite the well-known opinion and political assessment, the unusual angle allows you to better understand and sometimes re-evaluate what happened. The hero of "historical" works is a person who is inseparable from the history of his country. Historical events affect the fate of a person, changing it. But the writers of this trend considered the Soviet person from a humanistic point of view, and not from a political or social point of view.
Representatives of "historical" prose: M. Kuraev.
The "natural" course of the "other" prose is distinguished by the depiction of cruel reality. "Naturalists" describe in detail the negative aspects of life, truthfully depict dark moans public consciousness that have not previously been shown in the literature. The themes of the works were hazing in the army, the Afghan war, cynicism, alcoholism, and prison life. The authors only show real phenomena and deeds, but do not give any assessment to the described events and heroes. An objective narrative, as close as possible to reality, which the “naturalists” aspired to, allows the reader to form his own opinion about what is happening. 
Representatives of the "natural" trend: S. Kaledin, Yu. Stefanovich, M. Paley, G. Gabyshev, O. Ermakov, L. Petrushevsky, S. Dyshev.
The ironic avant-garde is a current that takes its origins from the ironic story of the 1960s. In their works, the "avant-gardists" beat, parodied already known plots. The life events depicted in the works are so fantastic and unusual that sometimes they seem unreal.
Avant-garde writers destroy stereotypes, ridicule the techniques and plots of classical literature.
Representatives of the "ironic avant-garde": V. Pietsuha, S. Dovlatov, E. Popov, M. Weller.
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“Other” prose unites authors whose works appeared in literature in the early 1980s, who opposed their demythologising strategy to the official one. Exposing the myth of a man - the creator of his own happiness, whose active position transforms the world, the writers showed that the Soviet man is entirely dependent on the domestic environment, he is a grain of sand thrown into the whirlpool of history. They peered into reality, trying to reach the bottom in search of truth, to discover what was obscured by the stereotypes of official literature.
“Other” prose is a generating name for authors who are very different in their stylistic manners and thematic attachments. Some of them tend to depict automated consciousness in a stagnant circle of existence (A. Ivanchenko, T. Tolstaya), others turn to the dark "corners" of social life (S. Kaledin, L. Petrushevskaya), others see a modern person through the cultural layers of past eras (E. Popov, Vik. Erofeev, V. Pietsukh). But for all the individuality of the writers, united “under the roof” of “another” prose, there are common features in their work. This is opposition to officialdom, a fundamental refusal to follow the established literary stereotypes, an escape from everything that can be regarded as biased. "Other" prose depicts a world of socially "shifted" characters and circumstances. It is, as a rule, outwardly indifferent to any ideal - moral, social, political.
Three trends can be distinguished in the "other" prose: "historical", "natural" and "ironic avant-garde". This division is rather arbitrary, since the historical perspective is also inherent in works that are not included in "historical" prose, and an ironic attitude towards reality is generally a peculiar sign of all "other" prose.
The division of "other" prose into "historical", "natural" and "ironic avant-garde" is convenient when analyzing the artistic specificity of works and corresponds to internal logic literary situation. The "historical" current is an attempt by literature to look at the events of history, which previously had a distinctly transparent political assessment, with open eyes. Non-standard, unusual perspective allows a deeper understanding of the historical fact, and sometimes overestimate it.
In the center of the "historical" stories is a man whose fate is historical, but not in a pretentious sense. It is inextricably linked with the vicissitudes of the existence of the Soviet state. This is a man who has the history of the country as his own past. In this sense, the works of the "historical" trend are genetically linked with the novels and short stories of Yu. Dombrovsky, Yu. Trifonov, V. Grossman, whose heroes believed their lives in history.
But unlike traditional realism"historical" prose explores the phenomenon of Soviet man from the point of view of general humanism, and not social or political.
In "historical", as in all "other" prose, the concept of history is a chain of accidents that affect a person's life, changing it radically. Moreover, the concatenation of accidents can create absolutely fantastic combinations, seemingly impossible in life, and yet absolutely realistic. That is, "historical" prose draws the fantastic from social life itself, exposing it and matching it with the life of an individual.
Conditional-metaphorical direction in domestic prose the end of the 20th century appears as a reaction to the existence of ideological censorship. Its origins are "fantastic" realism, represented in the works of N. Gogol, V. Odoevsky, M. Bulgakov, E. Zamyatin. The peak of the development of conditionally metaphorical prose falls on the mid-1980s. Since the late 1970s, such works have appeared as “Violist Danilov” by V. Orlov, “ living water» V. Krupin, “Rabbits and Boas” by F. Iskander. Myth, fairy tale, scientific concept, phantasmagoria form a bizarre, but recognizable world by contemporaries.
Conditionally metaphorical prose in real life discovers absurdity and illogicality, in its usual course he divines catastrophic paradoxes. Fantastic assumptions, tests are used here actors extraordinary opportunities, infernal temptations, in order to more accurately and vividly show the essence of reality hidden behind the conventions of forms and techniques. Conventionality does not contradict the realistic basis, but serves as a means of concentrating the author's concept of life.
This literary trend is not characterized by the psychological volume of characters. Here supra-individual or non-individual processes are depicted. human being. Even in the case when the heroes have some only them inherent features, How central characters novel-parable by A. Kim "Father-Forest" Nikolai, Stepan and Gleb Turaev, their individuality embodies not so much a character as a certain philosophical idea. The hero may be completely devoid of psychological certainty and act as a sign of some idea. Thus, in V. Pelevin's novel "The Life of Insects", anthropomorphic insects model a number of universal behavioral situations inherent in Russian reality in the 1990s. Principle artistic expression reality is expressed in the orientation to the forms of secondary conventionality. In conditionally metaphorical prose, several types of conventions are used:
1. In fabulous type of conventionality, the semantic significance of characters, objects or situations in a fairy tale is often filled with modern meanings, the story is updated. An unreal impetus to a further quite real turn of events can be a miracle. (Violist Danilov by V. Orlov). In the fabulous type of conventionality, simplicity is obligatory: a clear development of the plot, uninterrupted and unbreakable lines of characters. By creating fairy world, the author at the same time exposes its conditional character. The setting for fiction lies in the fact that both the author and the reader, as it were, recognize in advance that ordinary reality stands behind fiction. Here there is a combination of the traditionally fabulous and social or real-everyday life (“Rabbits and Boas” by F. Iskander).
2. In mythological type of conventionality, the deep archetypal structures of consciousness are recreated (cause-and-effect relationships are violated, different types of space and time are combined, the twin nature of the characters is revealed). The fabric of the work may include original layers of national consciousness, preserving mythological elements(“Piebald dog running along the edge of the sea”, “And the day lasts longer than a century” by Ch. Aitmatov) can be reproduced mythological images antiquity ("Squirrel", "Lotus", "The Village of the Centaurs" by A. Kim).
3. Fantastic the type of conventionality presupposes a kind of projection into the future or into some closed space of reality, fenced off from the rest of the world, transformed socially, morally, politically, etc. This is especially evident in the dystopian genre, presented in such works as “Laz” and “Our Way is Long” by V. Makanin, “New Robinsons” by L. Petrushevskaya, “Kys” by T. Tolstoy, “Notes of an Extremist” by A. Kurchatkin. Fantastic convention offers a picture of such reality, the condensed image of which, as it were, in itself generates fantastic images. In this case, everyday realities can be combined with fantastic ones; a dual world arises - a parallel existence of mystical, otherworldly and real reality (“Peace and Laughter” by Y. Mamleev, “The Life of Insects”, “Yellow Arrow”, “The Hermit and the Six-Fingered One” by V. Pelevin, “Kit” by T. Tolstoy).
In conventionally metaphorical prose, the plot-compositional structures of a parable, parabola, grotesque, and legend are used. The methods and forms of the parable are generally characteristic of the prose of the second half of the 20th century, which is looking for a way out to the moral foundations. human existence seeking to save means of expression.
One of the central ways of presenting social structure world in conditionally metaphorical prose is the grotesque, which allows you to sharpen the phenomenon to such an extent that it is perceived as unreal.
An important feature of conditionally metaphorical prose is that its features are universal and appear in the literature of various trends: realism, modernism, postmodernism. Thus, conditional metaphorism underlies the construction artistic world in and realistic works V. Makanin, A. Kurchatkin, and in postmodern novels by V. Pelevin and T. Tolstoy.
Iskander F. Rabbits and boas.
Kim A. Father-Forest. Iona Island. The village of centaurs.
Kurchatkin A. Notes of an extremist.
Makanin V. Laz. Long is our way.
Pelevin V. Insect life. Recluse and six-fingered.
Petrushevskaya L. New Robinsons.
Fat T. Kitty.
Main literature
Nemzer A. Literature today. About Russian prose. 90s. M., 1998.
additional literature
Balburov E.A. Poetic cosmos of Anatoly Kim // Balburov E.A. Literature and philosophy: two facets of the Russian logos. Novosibirsk, 2006.
Basinsky P. Anatoly Kurchatkin. Notes of an extremist (Construction
subway in our city)// New world. 1991. № 6.
Davydova T. T. Roman T. Tolstoy “Kis”: problems, images of heroes, genre, narration // Russian literature. 2002. No. 6.
Pronina A. V. The legacy of civilization: about the novel by T. Tolstoy “Kys” // Russian literature. 2002. No. 6.
"Other Prose"
“Other prose” is the common name for a stream of literature that united authors of different stylistic principles and thematic interests in the 1980s. The “other prose” includes works written in the 1980s by such writers as T. Tolstaya, M. Paley, L. Petrushevskaya, Evg. Popov, S. Kaledin, M. Kuraev, G. Golovin, Vik. Erofeev, Yu. Mamleev, V. Narbikova, Vyach. Pietsukh and others.
The unifying feature of the "other prose" was the opposition to the official Soviet culture, the fundamental refusal to follow the stereotypes and ideological bias that had developed in the literature of socialist realism. The works of "other prose" depict the world of socially shifted, deformed characters and circumstances. Some writers turn to the problem of automated consciousness in a conserved circle of existence (T. Tolstaya, M. Paley), others turn to dark, often monstrous forms, processes of social, everyday life (L. Petrushevskaya, S. Kaledin), others depict the existence of a person V modern world through the prism of the culture of past eras (Evg. Popov, Vyach. Pietsukh) or through the perception historical events(M. Kuraev).
The dominant feature of "other prose" is external indifference to any ideal (moral, philosophical, religious, political, social, etc.). The author's position here is devoid of a clear expression, as a result of which the illusion of "transcendence" arises, the effect of cold objectivity and impartiality or even indifference of the author to the ideological meanings of his work is created. Writers of "other prose" fundamentally refuse teaching, preaching, which traditionally distinguished Russian literature from others. European literatures. The rejection of moralizing leads to the destruction of dialogic relations between the author and the reader in the moral and philosophical aspect. The author here depicts events and characters, without giving any ethical assessment to the depicted.
Unlike conventionally metaphorical prose, the works of this literary formation do not create fantasy worlds. Phantasmagoria in "other prose" is declared to be the essence of everyday reality, its social and everyday manifestations. Because of this, the leading conceptual characteristics here are chance and absurdity, which govern the fate of people.
The authors of the "other prose" adhere to the idea that the chaos of life is the reverse side and a direct consequence of the hypocrisy observed in the private and public life of a person. Therefore, in most of their works, in the center of the image are the destroyed life and moral decline that characterize the existence modern society. Absurdity here is not an artistic technique, it appears as the idea and essence of the universe itself. Absurdity grows out of social, historical, everyday reality, turns out to be its internal quality and determines the value orientations of the universe modeled in the work.
These features of the “other prose” are especially clearly seen in the works written in the 1980s. the works of L. Petrushevskaya (the stories “Your Circle”, “Time is Night”, “ Observation deck”, stories “Medea”, “On the road of the god Eros”, “Oedipus' mother-in-law”, “New Robinsons”). Existential sensations in her prose arise due to the fact that for the characters "existence-in-the-world" is replaced by existence in everyday life, in which only the characters are able to realize themselves. The author here deliberately separates himself from the heroes of the story, and they themselves talk about their lives, passing under the sign of spiritual and material poverty. The only value here is irony in relation to the world, and to one's own destiny. L. Petrushevskaya does not give any assessment of the depicted reality. The man in her works is completely subordinate to Fate, and he can only bear the burden of his physical existence.
In “other prose”, time acquires special significance both as a parameter of the structural organization of the text and as a category of the ontological order. The main properties of temporality here are static, alienation, leaving gaps in the characters' lives. The image of time grows to a large-scale image of a dead end historical development human civilization (for example, " The night Watch» M. Kuraev, “Humble Cemetery” by S. Kaledin, “Time is Night” by L. Petrushevskaya). A continuous stream of growing entropy, in which a person is alienated from himself and from others, predetermines the impossibility of a life other than that which is revealed in reality.
Despite the heterogeneity of the texts that are combined into "other prose", several main lines of development of this literature can be distinguished. Within the "other prose" there are three main currents: historical, "natural", "ironic realism".
At the heart of the historical line is the comprehension of the events of history, which previously had an unambiguous political assessment, from the position of a man-in-the-world, and not a man-in-history. The purpose of such works is to understand and re-evaluate historical facts freed from ideological layers. Thus, in the stories of M. Kuraev "Captain Dickstein" and "Night Watch" the history of Russia is understood as the personal existence of a person whose fate turns out to be deeply historical. History is a chain of accidents that affect a person's life, radically transforming it, and the absurdity and phantasmagoria of life's ups and downs grows out of the historical fate of the country.
The "natural" trend of the "other prose" genetically goes back to the genre of the physiological essay of the "natural school" of the 19th century with a frank and detailed depiction of the negative aspects of life and the social "bottom". The heroes of the works here are outcasts, people forced out of society. Writers state the facts of social trouble, scrupulously describing various areas public life: hazing in the army (“Stroybat” by S. Kaledin), the war in Afghanistan (“Baptism” by O. Ermakov), cynicism of domestic, private existence (“Medea”, “Time is Night” by L. Petrushevskaya, “Kiberia from the Obvodny Canal "M. Paley). The characters of these works entirely depend on the environment, turn out to be its product and contribute to the strengthening and ossification of its norms and canons. Life is often depicted as the fulfillment of a once and for all approved ritual, and only by violating the ritual order can the hero gain inner spiritual integrity (“Own Circle” by L. Petrushevskaya, “Evgesha and Annushka” by M. Paley).
The main features of "ironic realism" are a conscious orientation to the book literary tradition, game beginning, irony as a way of relating to the world, depiction of anecdotal life situations. The model of the universe in the prose of the "ironic realists" is built on the verge of naturalism and the grotesque. Such an artistic strategy is inherent in the works of the 1980s. Vyach. Pietsukha ("New Moscow Philosophy"), Evg. Popova ("Aunt Musya and Uncle Leva", "In the days of my youth", "Slow-speed barge" Nadezhda "), Vik. Erofeev (“The Body of Anna, or the End of the Russian Avant-Garde”), G. Golovin (“Birthday of the Dead”). The absurd aspects of life appear in their works as realistic as possible. Here the features of postmodernist poetics are most clearly accentuated. It is no coincidence that most of the writers of this trend of "other prose" in the literary situation of the 1990s. positioned themselves as representatives of the culture of postmodernism.
Representing himself in the 1980s. an artistic phenomenon, conditioned to a greater extent by socio-cultural circumstances than by aesthetic ones proper, with changes in the socio-political situation in the country that occurred in 1990-1991. "other prose" ceases to exist as a literary community. Its representatives, having developed individual poetics in opposition to official literature, later diverge in various literary directions from realism (M. Kuraev, S. Kaledin) to postmodernism (T. Tolstaya, Evg. Popov, Vik. Erofeev, etc.).
Artistic texts
Golovin G. The birthday of the deceased.
Ermakov O. Baptism.
Kalin S. Humble cemetery. Stroybat.
Kuraev M. Captain Dickstein. The night Watch.
Paley M. Evgesha and Annushka. Cyberia from the Obvodny Canal. Wind field.
Petrushevskaya L. Your circle. Night time. Medea. Observation deck. New Robinsons.
Popov Evg. Aunt Musya and Uncle Leva. During my youth. Slow barge "Nadezhda".
Pietsukh. Vyach. New Moscow Philosophy.
Fat T. Okkervil river. Day.
Main literature
Nefagina G.L. Russian pro-law of the XX century. M., 2005.
additional literature
Kuritsyn V. Four of the generation of janitors and watchmen (About the work of writers T. Tolstoy, V. Pyetsukha, V. Erofeev, E. Popova) // Ural. 1990. No. 5.
Lebedushkina O. The Book of Kingdoms and Opportunities // Friendship of Peoples. 1998. No. 4.
Slavnikova O. Petrushevskaya and emptiness // Questions of Literature. 2000. No. 2.
Postmodern literature
Postmodernism as a cultural phenomenon of the second half of the 20th century is the result of the collapse of social, political, philosophical, and religious utopias. Initially, postmodern aesthetics arises in Europe, and later it is realized in the cultural space of Russia. In a situation of a catastrophic state of the world, there is a feeling of the impossibility of creating in the former system of aesthetic coordinates, provoking the search for an adequate response to the changes taking place in the human worldview. Because of this, in the philosophy and art of postmodernism, the central ideologeme of “the end of literature”, “the end of style”, “the end of history” is being developed, marking the completeness of those moral and philosophical ideas about the universe that determined human existence until the middle of the 20th century.
The methodological substantiation of postmodern aesthetics is the philosophy of poststructuralism, developed in the theoretical works of J. Deleuze, R. Barthes, J. Kristeva, M. Foucault, J. Derrida and a number of other representatives of the humanitarian thought of the second half of the 20th century. Peace in artistic concept postmodernism is perceived as a chaotically organized text, in which axiological constants are dissimilar, which does not allow building a clear hierarchy of values. This leads to the rejection of the "true-false" opposition: every truth about the world can be discredited.
Central characteristic postmodern poetics is intertextuality. Each work is conceived by postmodernists as just a part of endless text world culture, which is a dialogue of various artistic languages interacting at different levels of text organization. Intertextuality, which is the inclusion in the work of a lot of "foreign" texts, quotes, images, allusions, creates the effect of destroying the author's will, reduces his creative initiative. The concept of intertextuality is closely related to the idea of the "death of the author" as an individual creator of a work of art. Authorship is canceled, as the structure of the text reveals the voices of many other authors, who, in turn, also act as translators of a single text of world culture.
Postmodern intertextuality is created according to the principle of the game, itself turning into a game technique. Words, images, symbols, quotes are included in such a chaotic game, which contributes to the emergence of postmodern irony, understood as a fundamentally disordered, torn artistic world. Irony in the poetics of postmodernism is not a mockery, but a method of simultaneous perception of two contradictory phenomena that produce a relativistic understanding of being.
The literature of postmodernism is built on the basis of dialogic relations, where the dialogue takes place not between the author's and someone else's system of values, but between precedent aesthetic discourses.
Postmodernism emerged in Russian literature in the 1970s. Signs of postmodernist poetics are observed in the works of such "second culture" writers as Wen. Erofeev (the poem "Moscow - Petushki"), A. Bitov ("Pushkin House", "Flying Monks"), Sasha Sokolov ("School for Fools", "Palisandria"), Yuz Aleshkovsky ("Kangaroo").
The heyday of postmodernism falls on the late 1980s - 1990s. Many authors, classified as postmodernists, came out of the “other prose”, within which they developed an individual style of writing that organically fit into the new cultural context. Postmodern aesthetics is at the heart of Wieck's work. Erofeev, V. Pelevin, V. Sorokin, T. Tolstoy, Evg. Popova, A. Koroleva, Dm. Galkovsky, Yu. Koval, M. Kharitonov, Vyach. Pietsuha, N. Sadur, Yu. Mamleeva and others.
In the early 1990s Russian postmodernism begins to position itself as a leading aesthetic direction which determines the development not only of literature, but of the entire national culture.
Russian postmodern literature is heterogeneous in its manifestation. Its main varieties are conceptualism (sots art) and neo-baroque.
Sots Art is the practice of creating texts through the use of the language of social realist art. Ideological stamps, clichés, slogans are included in the postmodern work, in which they interact and clash with others. cultural codes. This leads to the destruction of the mythologems of socialist realism. So, many of the works of V. Sorokin are based on a parodic play on stereotypes Soviet culture. In such works of the writer as “Hearts of Four”, “Meeting of the Factory Committee”, “First Subbotnik”, “Marina’s Thirtieth Love”, “ Blue fat”, there is a debunking of ideas, themes, symbols, imagery of socialist realism, realized through an ironically stylized combination of discourses of official Soviet literature. The plots of these works are similar to the plots village prose, industrial novel and other varieties of socialist realism literature. Heroes are recognizable: a worker, an activist, a veteran, a pioneer, a Komsomol member, a shock worker of socialist labor. However, the plot development turns into an absurdity, a kind of “style hysteria” arises, which destroys Soviet social ideals.
Conceptualism refers not only to Soviet ideological models, but in general to any concepts in order to reveal them from inconsistency. Any ideologized consciousness is exposed here. If Sots Art, playing with established canons and stereotypes, turns them inside out, then conceptualism considers philosophical, religious, moral, aesthetic values from various points of view, depriving them of the right to claim truth. Verification of various axiological systems is presented in Vic's conceptual novels. Erofeev "Russian Beauty" and "Pocket Apocalypse", Evg. Popov "The Soul of a Patriot, or Various Messages to Ferfichkin", "Master Chaos", "On the Eve of the Eve", V. Pelevin "Omon Ra", V. Sorokin "Roman".
IN contemporary postmodernism produced new way modeling of the universe associated with the virtualization of being. Newest information Technology, the development of the Internet affect the structural organization of the text, the technology of its creation, the semantics of the work, becoming elements of content, eventfulness, objective world. Thus, computer technologies determine the originality of a number of works by V. Pelevin (“Prince of the State Planning Commission”, “Generation “P”, “Helmet of Horror. Creatiff about Theseus and the Minotaur”), generating a virtual reality in which the characters exist.
The universe is constructed differently in another variety of postmodern literature - neo-baroque. The neo-baroque poetics incorporates the discoveries of "another prose", modernist aesthetics, conditional metaphorism, naturalism. Artistic excess as the dominant principle of text creation is manifested in the “corporeality” of descriptions and the collage fragmentation of the narrative by A. Korolev (“Gogol’s Head”, “Queen of Spades”, “Man-Language”, “Being Bosch”, “Instinct No. 5”), in the ornamental style by T. Tolstoy (“Kys”), in the creation of ritual mysteries from everyday realities by V. Sharov (“The Old Girl”, “Trace to the Trail”, “The Resurrection of Lazarus”), in the poeticization and spiritualization of physical pathologies by Yu Mamleeva ("Peace and Laughter", "Connecting Rods", "Wandering Time"), in the transfer of emphasis from the text to the notes to it by Dm. Galkovsky ("The Endless Dead End"). Stylistic redundancy in neo-baroque prose is facilitated by intertextual connections, turning the text into a total dialogue with the previous world culture.
An important feature of Russian postmodernism, which distinguishes it from many postmodernist works of European and American writers, is its commitment to ontological issues. Despite the declared denial of any positive content, domestic postmodernists inherit the Russian classical literature, traditionally immersed in the solution of spiritual and moral issues. Rejecting the ideologization of their own creativity, most postmodern authors offer their own conceptual vision of the world. So, in the prose of V. Pelevin, the ideas of Zen Buddhism are rethought and affirmed as the true way of existence (“Chapaev and the Void”, “Life of Insects”, “Yellow Arrow”). In the novels of A. Korolev, the idea of preserving moral principles as the only form of opposition to metaphysical evil is revealed (“Man-language”, “Being Bosch”). In the works of V. Sharov, combining the features of post-realistic prose, the spiritual meanings of the Old Testament are actualized and foolishness as a strategy for transforming the world order is put forward as a central ideologeme.
Thus, the literature of postmodernism, expressing the crisis state of modern culture, rejecting any ideologies and stating the absolute relativity of human existence, nevertheless develops its own axiological ideas. This allows us to perceive this aesthetics not so much as denying the value acceptance of the world, but as emphasizing the need for the emergence of new system values, taking into account the experience of previous historical eras and appropriate modernity. Russian postmodernism confirms the regularity of the emergence of non-traditional literary direction at the end of the 20th century, the essence of which is the establishment of a multipolar world and openness in relations with other areas of modern literature - realism, post-realism, modernism, neo-sentimentalism, etc.
Artistic texts
Bitov A. Pushkin House. Flying Monks. Announced.
Galkovsky Dm. Endless dead end.
Erofeev Ven. Moscow - Petushki.
Erofeev Vik. Living with an idiot Russian beauty.
Koval Yu. Suer-Vyer.
Queen. Gogol's head. Language man. Be Bosch. Instinct number 5. Queen of spades.
Mamleev Yu. Peace and Laughter. Connecting rods. Wandering time.
Pelevin V. Chapaev and emptiness. Insect life. Omon Ra. Generation "P". Helm of Dread. Creatiff on Theseus and the Minotaur
Popov Evg. True story Green Musicians. The day before the day before. The Soul of a Patriot, or Various Messages to Ferfichkin. Master Chaos.
Sokolov, Sasha. School for fools. Palisandria.
Sorokin V. Four hearts. Blue fat. Novel. Marina's thirtieth love. Ice. Day of the oprichnik.
Fat T. Kitty.
Kharitonov M. Lines of Fate, or Milashevich's Chest.
Sharov V. Before and during. Old girl. Resurrection of Lazarus. Track to track.
Main literature
Bogdanova O.V. Modern literary process(On the issue of postmodernism in Russian literature of the 70-90s of the XX century). SPb., 2001.
Bogdanova O.V. Postmodernism in the context of modern Russian literature (60-90s of the XX century - beginning of XXI century). SPb., 2004.
Skoropanova I.S. Russian postmodern literature. M., 1999.
Modern Russian Literature (1990s - early XXI century) / S.I. Timina, V.E. Vasiliev, O.V. Voronina et al. St. Petersburg, 2005.
additional literature
Lipovetsky M. Russian Postmodernism: Essays historical poetics. Yekaterinburg, 1997.
Leiderman N., Lipovetsky M. Modern Russian Literature: 1950-1990s. In 2 volumes. T. 2 1968-1990. M., 2007.
Nefagina G.L. Russian pro-law of the XX century. M., 2005.
Postmodernists about postculture. Interviews with contemporary writers and critics. M., 1998.
Epstein M. Postmodern in Russia: Literature and Theory. M., 2000.
"In the Gardens of Other Possibilities" ("Other Prose" at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries.)
To acquaint with the concepts-synonyms: "other prose" - postmodernism on the example of L. Petrushevskaya's story "Like an angel".
Be able to present a project developed on the topic.
To develop the intellectual, communicative and creative abilities of students.
Raise interest in modern literature.
Formulation of the topic.
Today we have an extracurricular reading lesson. Vladimir Makanin, Andrey Bitov, Tatyana Tolstaya, Viktor Pelevin, Victoria Tokareva… Do these names sound familiar? Who are these people? (Modern writers - writers of the late 20th - early 21st centuries).
Formulate the topic of the lesson. (In the world of modern literature).
Read how the topic is worded on the board. This is the name of a cycle of stories by Lyudmila Petrushevskaya, one of the most recognized contemporary writers. How do you understand her idea? Let's clarify the topic. (“Other prose” at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries). Choose a synonym for the word "other". (New).
So there is "old" prose. In what directions did it develop? How do they differ in the main? (Realism and modernism. Reality is imperfect. R. proposed the ideal of life, sowed "reasonable, good, eternal" in an aesthetic form. M. tried to transform the world with the help of language in accordance with his ideal.)
- “Other prose”, new modern prose, otherwise called postmodernism.
2. Determining the objectives of the lesson.
Determine the objectives of the lesson using questions.
(What ... (is "other prose"? postmodernism?)
What is ... (features of "other prose"?)
Project presentation.
We will receive answers to questions from the draft, which will be presented to us by the groups that prepared it. (Seat.) The class listens carefully and processes the information in order to independently write a conclusion on the topic for evaluation.
1) The theme of the project.
The theme of our project sounds like this - “In the gardens others opportunities." We propose to wander together through the gardens of prose of one of the first authors of the "other prose" - Lyudmila Stefanovna Petrushevskaya.
2) Relevance of the project.
The topic did not arise by chance. We studied M. Gorky's play "At the bottom", and the teacher suggested that we get acquainted with the image of the bottom in modern literature. Then the questions arose: “Is there literature today? Literature is not like reading, but like art? If there is, what is it? And most importantly, do we need? If needed, then why? There are many questions, and all of them are new to us.
3) Organization of work.
Under the guidance of the teacher, we were divided into groups (2-4 people each):
Group of sociologists;
information group;
A group of researchers;
Creative Group;-
Here is the result of our work on a research and creative project.
4) Performance of groups.
A) a group of sociologists.
To make sure the topic is relevant, we conducted a preliminary survey among classmates.
The following questions were suggested:
Which modern writer can you name?
What is your first impression of what you read?
_____ people were interviewed.
None were named contemporary writer _______ Human.
Read (who?)
I didn’t like (if read) _______ people, because it’s gloomy or nothing is clear.
I liked the reading, it's so easy and does not load problems.
As a result, we made sure that we chose the topic that was necessary for our own development first of all.
B) Information group.
First of all, we got acquainted with a new writer. Here is a brief main information about him. (Message. Show portrait.)
Lyudmila Stefanovna Petrushevskaya is today recognized by both critics and readers. This is one of the most read contemporary authors.
Lyudmila Stefanovna Petrushevskaya was born on May 26, 1938 in Moscow. Her childhood fell on the difficult, hungry years of the war, she was remembered for her wanderings among relatives, life in an orphanage and evacuation.
Upon returning to the capital after the war, she graduated from the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University. She worked as a correspondent for newspapers and radio, in a publishing house, and as an editor for the reference department of television.
Literary creativity began with writing poems, scripts for student evenings. The first publication in 1972 in the journal "Aurora" - the story "Through the fields", the first plays were staged by amateur theaters. And then 16 years - work "on the table". In 1988, the first book of the writer was published - a collection of short stories " immortal love", for which it was awarded Pushkin Prize. However, she first became famous as a playwright; in the 1980s, her plays were performed on the stages of the country's leading theaters. These are "Cinzano", "Columbine's Apartment", "Three Girls in Blue", "Moscow Choir". She writes stories and poems for children and adults.
Lyudmila Stefanovna lives and works in Moscow.
Her work is far from topical political passions, the focus is on the private life of a modern “little” person. It is said about Petrushevskaya's stories that she "combined prose with poetry" and that her stories evoke "cold delight", inner shudder - a sure sign of the authenticity, high aesthetics of the work.
C) Research group.
For the study, they chose a very short story "Like an Angel", written in _________ year.
We listen to a story that critics refer to as "other prose", and some as "bad prose". It will be presented by our creative team.
D) Creative team.
Artistic retelling of the text. (According to excerpts. Music in the finale…………………………..)
C) A group of researchers.
We dealt with the concept of postmodernism. First turned to outside works. The form of the work is immediately striking. Criticism notes the following features of the "other prose".
The mood after reading is gloomy, heavy, even pessimistic.
There is nothing lofty in life, there is no ideal: a person is completely immersed in everyday life, everyday life, everyday life, immersed so much that it becomes scary for him.
The prose of life is so addictive ordinary person that there are no bright events in his life, and as a result, the plot is blurred in the story, you can even say that it does not exist.
The language is rough, unaesthetic. It has a lot colloquial vocabulary, colloquialisms and phraseological units: “everyone was staring at her”, “staring at this thick, stupid muzzle”, “receiving a cuff”, “give in the head”, “city scarecrow”, “smearing all the secretions of the eyes, nose and mouth on someone else’s coat " etc.
I must say that other writers of postmodernism are characterized by these features to an even greater extent and their works sound even tougher. Today, Vladimir Makanin's story “The Prisoner of the Caucasus” is already a classic; the works of Yevgeny Grishkovets, for example, the story “Rivers”, the novel “Asphalt”, are of ambiguous interest.
The main character's name is Angelina, from the word "angel". The word "angel" has several meanings:
1) the servant of God, the executor of his will,
2) a person is a living embodiment of beauty and goodness,
3) affectionate appeal to a loved one, dear person.
At first glance, Angelina is the exact opposite of an angel. Little baby, "fat, weak and funny", she repels with weak, bad teeth. At the age of 15, hoping to please Angelina, she decorates herself with cheap jewelry and bright makeup, but her red mouth, blue eyelids, black eyebrows, along with "thin, matted hair" and thick glasses, make her want to mock. At 30, this is a “strong, powerful, violent woman” in headlight glasses on a blue-red blunt muzzle. scary picture complemented by a toothless mouth with four outward fangs, always hungry prowling eyes and always dirty hands.
Angelina also has shortcomings: she harasses her mother with her constant demands to buy, she could give a cuff to her mother or a sick father, and even in the subway she “beat people right on the head with her fist”.
It is clear from the description, and Petrushevskaya directly says that Agelin is “poor fool”, “disabled”, “wretched”, “poor in spirit”, she has a “poor sick little head”, that is, she is mentally ill. In Rus', such a person would be called “holy fool”, and the attitude would be like a man of God, who cannot be offended.
And how do others relate to Angelina? Very cruel. For peers, "crocodile", did not respond to requests, beat on the head. On the street they stared and stared. Even relatives, as they grew older, became ashamed and sighed with relief when they left the guests. Angelina for others, if not a freak who has nothing to live for, then a burden that cannot be got rid of. She is the cross that almost everyone refused to bear. On the face are typical signs of modern man - callousness, mental isolation and terrible loneliness.
Petrushevskaya is sure that it should be different. The Bible says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." It's about Angelina. She has the features of an angel. This is manifested in the fact that she cannot fit into the world in which she lives. Angelina is mentally ill and has remained a child for the rest of her life, retaining a fresh perception of life. Her soul is open to people, and for a very long time she "tried to divide the cookies for everyone and distribute them to everyone." And finally, the trait of an angel in her heightened sense of justice: the "sick soul" felt "the lie of supposedly universal love until a certain hour." Feeling her uselessness, Angelina quickly took her mother out of the guests to the street. There, the mother endured cuffs from her crying daughter, because she understood that her “tears are about injustice, about ... an unequal distribution of love and kindness: everything is everything for everyone, but again nothing for me.”
Thus, Petrushevskaya claims that Angelina is "God's creation and has all the rights to a place on earth" and people must understand this in order to avoid the disintegration of the individual, dehumanization.
Pupil from creative team.
I will read a poem by seventeen-year-old Babkova Xenia, who once read the story “Like an Angel”, and wrote about how the main character felt. called
"ANGELINA".
Look around - only pain and disease,
Only fear for yourself, no hope.
Love has no hands, no hopes, no girlfriends,
There is nothing more comfortable than dirty clothes.
There is a desire for a dream that everyone helps,
To give at least a drop of sympathy.
Maybe the wind of fate that carries away prayers,
He left the gift to her so that they would not ruin it.
God marked the one that is terrible, stupid,
But her soul is laid down from above.
Let it be poor, and dirty, ugly, rude.
There is She in this dead world...
But is the author referring only to Angelina? At the end it is written : “... In the meantime, her life is guarded by her guardian angel, her mother, tearing off huge pieces from her long loaf, and Angelina demands everything - give-give-give, and the mother is busy so that they don’t offend, don’t kill her angel daughter, so that this daughter did not kill her angel-husband lying in bed, everyone is innocent, the mother thinks, and I will run with her until I die completely, but here is fresh air and movement, the angel mother thinks, my mother lived to ninety three."
An angel is a daughter, and also an angel is a father and, most importantly, an angel is a mother. It is they who are the guardian angels of their daughter, who carry their cross with angelic patience. Father is already 75, mother is 70. Life with a sick person is an eternal race, it is stepping over one's own life, it is quiet feat self-sacrifice out of love for her daughter. They "did not give their Angelina to a lunatic asylum, fearing to offend her forever, to frighten her with the horror of bars and locked doors, which Angelina could not stand." The mother has become “like a hardened oven”, day and night she is gnawed by the same question: “Why am I doing this?”, But she will never betray her “chick”.
The following conclusions can be drawn from the above.
According to the content of "other prose" in general. The world is chaos. No harmony exists not only in this world, but in no other, and there is no "other" world. Man's destiny is to try not to lose himself in this meaningless and aimless kaleidoscope of events. This terrible conclusion, because it does not even allow the thought of the existence of an ideal. So is it worth reading such literature?
Formally, the prose of postmodernism is rejected by us in most cases because of the rough, street language. There is no further plot, what the author wants is unclear. Mood - I don't want to live. This means that we do not need such literature and should not read it.
However, in our opinion, this is a hasty conclusion. Modern new prose, according to critics, is more interesting for readers than the boring works of modern realist writers, who, in the spirit of tradition, guide the true path.
The prose of postmodernism is an intellectual game with the reader. So, first of all, it develops intellectually. You immerse yourself in the text, become a co-author of the text and get to know yourself. In the science of literature, the term "intertextuality" even appeared - this is the correlation of a text with other literary sources. For example, reading the story of L. Petrushevskaya, you will remember M. Gorky, F. M. Dostoevsky and A. P. Chekhov. Dostoevsky I read about " little man”, but the writer sympathizes with him, and Petrushevskaya does not have a sense of his significance, his individuality is erased, he is a man of the crowd. Chekhov's way of life kills the soul, while Petrushevskaya's life is just the atmosphere of life. Gorky is afraid at the bottom, but there is light and a dream to get out, and in the modern prose of postmodernism everything is at the bottom, everyone is “naked on the bare ground” - and everything is hopeless. "Different prose" requires a different type of reader. But in it you can find something important for the soul. For example, while reading Petrushevskaya, remember the Bible again: "If you feel bad, find someone who is worse, help - and you will be comforted."
It also occurred to us that the work of Petrushevskaya can be used when writing an essay for the Unified State Examination, if the appropriate topic falls out. So, for various reasons, we recommend getting as close as possible to the prose of "other possibilities".
Please if you have any questions. Thank you for your attention.
Reflection.
1) - Thank you for the presented project, for the great research and creative work done. I think that everyone understood that there is modern literature as an art, that it is very different from traditional literature. Before everyone independently analyzes what they heard and draws a conclusion on the topic, still answer the question:
2) Written conclusion on the topic.
postmodern literature.
A. Choose the correct answer.
A1.What does the concept of "other prose" mean?
This is the prose of the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries in the tradition of Russian classical literature.
This is postmodern literature.
This is the literature of modernism.
A2. What features does other prose have?
Full immersion of a person in the domestic environment.
Preaching eternal moral values.
A hero with an active life position, the creator of his own happiness.
Intertextuality.
Socio-philosophical problems.
Gloomy, pessimistic coloring.
Experimental language.
B. Write the answer in words.
AT 2. "Intertextuality" is the correlation of the text with other literary sources. What works of Russian classics are associated with the titles of works by contemporary authors?
L. Petrushevskaya "Lady with dogs" _________________________________________
V. Makanin "Prisoner of the Caucasus" __________________________________________
WITH. Read syncwines on the topic.Choose your own position and comment on it.
Another prose. Another prose.
Dark, incomprehensible. Unusual, intelligent.
Frightens, repels, pollutes. Attracts, develops, does not press.
Waste of time! Self respect!
(Answers sound.)
Thank you for your work.
D/z. Learn terms (postmodernism, intertextuality)
Would I classify Petrushevka's story as "bad prose"? Written reflection.
