The human concept in Russian Neomodernist prose of the 21st Century

Abstract

Research subject is grounding efficiency and topicality of Russian literature (and its studies) as a cultural project, that could be apologia of a traditional individual. Methodological basis is anthropocentric literature of Erich Auerbach, Dmitry Likhachev, Sergey Averintsev, Harold Bloom, in which literary text analysis, assessment of genre structures lead to the conclusions on the individual’s state under the established cultural tradition. Analysis of contemporary Russian novels outlines authors’ worlds. Reading them evokes various images: of a passionate individual, often with certain intent, but always affected by the interaction with crises and voids (Yury Buida), an individual characterized by various anti-totalitarian acts, by aspiration to exercise the freedom of thought in everyday life (Ludmila Ulitskaya), an egocentric individual, believing that the most significant victories come in the representation of the own self (Edward Limonov), an individual prone to interaction with totalitarian principles, synthesizing non-canonic metaphysical forms and attributes of strong state under ambivalent relations of utopia and anti-utopia (Vladimir Sorokin), an individual actively exploring modern world and general existence in motions, related by the author to Oriental cognition principles and spiritual practices (Victor Pelevin). Our focused literary analysis aims at combining all text moves in plot and language that represent evolvement of a person as one of the central problems of any novel.