Deconstruction of the historical/historiosophical novel genre strategies in the work of Vladimir Sharov

Abstract

The article analyzes the deconstruction of genre strategies of the historical and historiosophical novel in the work of Vladimir Sharov, one of the most significant representatives of Russian postmodern prose. The research focuses on the specifics of the historical narrative literary reinterpretation, which in Sharov’s works loses its linearity and objectivity, turning into a field of multiple interpretations. The methodology is based on Linda Hutcheon’s concept of historiographical metafiction, which makes it possible to reveal the nature of a postmodern text that questions traditional ways of representing the past. The article demonstrates how Sharov transforms the genre canons of a historical novel, replacing documentary accuracy with a game of authenticity, and chronological sequence with discrete temporal models. The textual nature of the history perception in Sharov’s novels is embodied through the construction of a quasidocumentary narrative that conveys a deliberately subjective perception of history. A kind of literary projection of the historical narrative discreteness in Sharov’s novels is the contamination of native narratives and quasi-documents. At the same time, their semantic load and degree of reliability are equalized. Special attention is paid to the violation of temporal linearity: retrospective narrative, chronological collapses and palimpsest structures. The destruction of the chronicle element, the identification of two interconnected reference points, becomes the basis for the formation of metahistorical discourse in Sharov’s novels. The content of the metahistorical discourse becomes the Messianic narrative, deconstructed in Sharov’s novels. The pseudo-Messianic idea does not yield a positive result, showing the emptiness of the historiosophical episteme. A universal version of the metahistorical narrative deconstruction becomes a palimpsest, which is carried out by the repetition of plot structures and the correlation of sacred and national history.