UDC

Authors

Abstract

Modern Russian science has only recently turned to the concept of marginal person and the problem of marginalization, which evolved in the 1930s. Literary history can hardly be separated from the various spheres of social life, in particular from sociology, as these two seemingly opposite branches of scholarship study the same object: people and society. One can suggests that marginal character appears in the era of great social change and is used in literature to explain them. The current period in Russian history (late 20th and early 21st centuries) can obviously be reckoned among such transitional phases. The prose of the period under study is of particular interest due to the fact that we are directly observing the reality and can already see the changes taking place in literature. This paper focuses on the marginal character in modern Russian literature and studies his evolution from the 1970s to 2000s. The author analyzed three most significant works of this period, having the social status of their characters in common: Moscow – Petushki by V. Erofeev, Underground, or The Hero of Our Time by V. Makanin and Matisse by A. Ilichevsky. The direction of evolution is determined by the transforming concept of the world, changing the literary character’s motives. The quest for inspiration in modern Russian literature begins with the character of the 1970s escaping into the marginal world, free and independent of the conditions of life and the values imposed by the totalitarian state, and results in an inner, spiritual overcoming of his social exclusion in the early 21st century.

Keywords

References

1. Abasheva M.P. Literatura v poiskakh litsa [Literature in Search of Individuality]. Perm, 2001.
   
2. Andegraund [Underground Art]. Slovar’ literaturovedcheskikh terminov [Dictionary of Literary Terms]. Comp. by Belokurova S.P. St. Petersburg, 2007.
   
3. Arkhangel’skiy A. Gde skhodilis’ kontsy s kontsami [When the Story Hung Together]. Druzhba narodov, 1998, no. 7, pp. 82–88.
   
4. Gurin S.P. Marginal’naya antropologiya [Marginal Anthropology]. Saratov, 2000. 237 p.
5.  Erofeev V. Moskva – Petushki [Moscow – Petushki]. Moscow, 1999. 154 p.
   
6. Latynina A. Legko li ubit’ cheloveka? Literatura kak velikiy virus: (Otklik na roman V. Makanina “Andegraund, ili Geroy nashego vremeni”) [Is It Hard to Kill a Person? Literature as a Great Virus: (Comments on V. Makanin’s Novel “Underground, or The Hero of Our Time”]. Literaturnaya gazeta, 1998, no. 17, pp. 10–17.
   
7. Leyderman N.L., Lipovetskiy M.N. Sovremennaya russkaya literatura: 1950–1990-e gody: v 2 t. T. 2. 1968–1990 [Modern Russian Literature: 1950s – 1990s: In 2 Vols. Vol. 2. 1968–1990]. Moscow, 2003. 235 p.
   
8. Lipovetskiy M.N. Rastratnye strategii, ili Metamorfozy “chernukhi” [The Strategies of Spending, or Metamorphoses of Gloomy Stories]. Novyy mir, 1999, no. 11, pp. 193–210.
   
9. Makanin V.S. Andegraund, ili geroy nashego vremeni [Underground, or The Hero of Our Time]. Moscow, 1999. 354 p.
   
10. Nikolaev N.I. Literaturnyy geroy v mire ego postupka [The Literary Hero in His Action World]. Diskussiya, 2012, no. 3 (12), pp. 173–176.
    
11. Nikolaev N.I. U istokov novykh russkikh literaturnykh predstavleniy o “schast’e” i “udache”, “sluzhbe” i “sluzhenii” (“Fortuna” N.A. L’vova) [At the Root of the New Russian Literary Ideas of “Happiness” and “Success”, “Duties” and “Service” (“Fortune” by N.A. Lvov)]. Vestnik Pomorskogo universiteta. Ser.: Gumanitarnye i sotsial’nye nauki, 2008, no. 4, pp. 87–94.
    
12. Nikolaev N.I., Nekhlebaeva N.A., Shestakova E.Yu. Russkiy literaturnyy geroy v kontekste eticheskikh iskaniy XVIII – XIX vekov. Ch. 1. Arkhitektonika mira postupkov literaturnogo geroya pervoy treti XVIII veka [Russian Literary Character in the Context of the Ethical Pursuits in the 18th – 18th Centuries. Part 1. Architectonics of the World of Literary Character Actions in the First Third of the 18th Century]. Arkhangelsk, 2009.
    
13. Nikolaev N.I., Khramtsova M.V. Marginal’nyy mir i geroy v russkoy literature XVIII veka [Marginal World and Character in Russian Literature of the 18th Century]. Diskussiya, 2014, no. 2 (43), pp. 138–142.
    
14. Pavlidis P. Lichnost’ v postmodernistskom vospriyatii. K protivorechiyam sovremennogo obrazovaniya [Personality in Postmodern Perception. To the Contradictions of Modern Education]. Innovatsii v obrazovanii, 2005, no. 6, pp. 55–64.
    
15. Pustovaya V. Krupitsy tverdi [Grains of the Earth]. Voprosy literatury, 2010, no. 4, pp. 43–52.
    
16. Rybal’chenko T.L. Verbal’nyy, vizual’nyy i zvukovoy yazyki poznaniya ontologii v romane A. Ilichevskogo “Matiss” [Verbal, Visual and Sound Languages of Ontology Cognition in Matisse by A. Ilichevsky]. Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Ser.: Filologiya, 2012, no. 4 (20), pp. 98–114.
    
17. Semykina R.S. Dostoevskiy F.M. i russkaya proza posledney treti XX veka: avtoref. dis. kand. filolog. nauk [F.M. Dostoevsky and Russian Prose of the Last Third of the Twentieth Century: Cand. Philol. Sci. Diss. Abs.]. Yekaterinburg, 2008. 37 p.
    
18. Chernyak M.A. Malen’kiy slovarik pro bol’shuyu knigu [A Small Dictionary About a Great Book]. Bibliotechnoe delo, 2011, no. 8 (146), pp. 4–9.