Boundaries of the historical in modern Russian novelistics (V. Sharov, L. Ulitskaya, D. Bykov, E. Vodolazkin)

   The article discusses the tendency to problematize the place and role of man in great history, which is observed in a number of texts by modern authors. Reflection on the reliability of historical knowledge, which comes into conflict with the authentic perception of the individual, generates specific plots and images. Thus, the main character of V. Sharov’s novel “The Old Girl” “turns around” and begins to “live back” after her husband’s arrest in 1937; D. Bykov offers a number of alternative events in Russian history, which in the context of the artistic integrity of the novel turn out to be either a forgotten truth (“Spelling”; “X”), or one of the characters’ fiction (“Justification”); the protagonist of E. Vodolazkin’s novel “The Aviator” resurrects an early 20th-century Russia and himself in his notes; artistically rethinking the biography of the Christian righteous Oswald Rufeisen, L. Ulitskaya creates the illusion of the documentary in her novel “Daniel Stein, Translator”. These works about the Russian history of the 20^th century possess the features of poetics that are not characteristic of the historical novel genre, in particular they are: 1) the work with historical prototypes and their mythological reception in the public consciousness and literature; 2) the important role of fantastic elements in plot construction; 3) problematization of the boundaries of the fictional and the documentary through the complication of the narrative structure; 4) gravitation towards the metanovel genre (reflection on the creative act). Thus, it can be stated that in modern Russian novelistics, there is a clear tendency to problematize the boundaries of historical discourse and a shift towards mythopoetics.

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