Review of domestic and modern literature. Main directions in modern Russian literature lesson plan on literature (grade 11) on the topic Modern literature of the last decade authors

The events that occurred in the last decades of the last century affected all spheres of life, including culture. Significant changes were also observed in fiction. With the adoption of the new Constitution, a turning point occurred in the country, which could not but affect the way of thinking and the worldview of citizens. New value guidelines have emerged. Writers, in turn, reflected this in their work.

The topic of today's story is modern Russian literature. What trends have been observed in prose in recent years? What features are inherent in the literature of the 21st century?

Russian language and modern literature

The literary language has been processed and enriched by great masters of words. It should be considered one of the highest achievements of national speech culture. At the same time, it is impossible to separate the literary language from the folk language. The first person to understand this was Pushkin. The great Russian writer and poet showed how to use speech material created by the people. Today, in prose, authors often reflect the folk language, which, however, cannot be called literary.

Time frame

When using a term such as “modern Russian literature,” we mean prose and poetry created in the early nineties of the last century and in the 21st century. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, dramatic changes occurred in the country, as a result of which literature, the role of the writer, and the type of reader became different. In the 1990s, works by such authors as Pilnyak, Pasternak, Zamyatin finally became available to ordinary readers. The novels and stories of these writers have, of course, been read before, but only by advanced book lovers.

Liberation from prohibitions

In the 1970s, a Soviet person could not calmly walk into a bookstore and buy the novel Doctor Zhivago. This book, like many others, was banned for a long time. In those distant years, it was fashionable for representatives of the intelligentsia, even if not out loud, to scold the authorities, criticize the “correct” writers approved by it and quote “forbidden” ones. The prose of disgraced authors was secretly reprinted and distributed. Those who were involved in this difficult matter could lose their freedom at any time. But banned literature continued to be reprinted, distributed and read.

Years have passed. The power has changed. Such a concept as censorship simply ceased to exist for some time. But, oddly enough, people did not line up in long lines for Pasternak and Zamyatin. Why did it happen? In the early 1990s, people lined up at grocery stores. Culture and art were in decline. Over time, the situation improved somewhat, but the reader was no longer the same.

Many of today's critics speak very unflatteringly about prose of the 21st century. What the problem of modern Russian literature is will be discussed below. First, it is worth talking about the main trends in the development of prose in recent years.

The Other Side of Fear

During times of stagnation, people were afraid to say an extra word. This phobia turned into permissiveness in the early nineties of the last century. Modern Russian literature of the initial period is completely devoid of an instructive function. If, according to a survey conducted in 1985, the most read authors were George Orwell and Nina Berberova, 10 years later the books “Filthy Cop” and “Profession - Killer” became popular.

In modern Russian literature at the initial stage of its development, phenomena such as total violence and sexual pathologies prevailed. Fortunately, during this period, as already mentioned, authors from the 1960s and 1970s became available. Readers also had the opportunity to get acquainted with foreign literature: from Vladimir Nabokov to Joseph Brodsky. The work of previously banned authors has had a positive impact on Russian modern fiction.

Postmodernism

This movement in literature can be characterized as a peculiar combination of ideological attitudes and unexpected aesthetic principles. Postmodernism developed in Europe in the 1960s. In our country, it took shape as a separate literary movement much later. There is no single picture of the world in the works of postmodernists, but there is a variety of versions of reality. The list of modern Russian literature in this direction includes, first of all, the works of Viktor Pelevin. In the books of this writer, there are several versions of reality, and they are by no means mutually exclusive.

Realism

Realist writers, unlike modernists, believe that there is meaning in the world, but it must be found. V. Astafiev, A. Kim, F. Iskander are representatives of this literary movement. We can say that in recent years the so-called village prose has regained popularity. Thus, one often encounters depictions of provincial life in the books of Alexei Varlamov. The Orthodox faith is, perhaps, the main one in the prose of this writer.

A prose writer can have two tasks: moralizing and entertaining. There is an opinion that third-rate literature entertains and distracts from everyday life. Real literature makes the reader think. Nevertheless, among the topics of modern Russian literature, crime occupies not the last place. The works of Marinina, Neznansky, Abdullaev, perhaps, do not inspire deep reflection, but they gravitate towards the realistic tradition. The books of these authors are often called “pulp fiction.” But it is difficult to deny the fact that both Marinina and Neznansky managed to occupy their niche in modern prose.

The books of Zakhar Prilepin, a writer and famous public figure, were created in the spirit of realism. Its heroes mainly live in the nineties of the last century. Prilepin's work evokes mixed reactions among critics. Some consider one of his most famous works, “Sankya,” to be a kind of manifesto for the younger generation. And Nobel laureate Günter Grass called Prilepin’s story “The Vein” very poetic. Opponents of the Russian writer’s work accuse him of neo-Stalinism, anti-Semitism and other sins.

Women's prose

Does this term have a right to exist? It is not found in the works of Soviet literary scholars, yet the role of this phenomenon in the history of literature is not denied by many modern critics. Women's prose is not just literature created by women. It appeared in the era of the birth of emancipation. Such prose reflects the world through the eyes of a woman. Books by M. Vishnevetskaya, G. Shcherbakova, and M. Paley belong to this direction.

Are the works of Booker Prize winner Lyudmila Ulitskaya women's prose? Maybe only individual works. For example, stories from the collection "Girls". Ulitskaya’s heroes are equally men and women. In the novel “The Kukotsky Case,” for which the writer was awarded a prestigious literary award, the world is shown through the eyes of a man, a professor of medicine.

Not many modern Russian works of literature are actively translated into foreign languages ​​today. Such books include novels and stories by Lyudmila Ulitskaya and Victor Pelevin. Why are there so few Russian-language writers today who are interesting in the West?

Lack of interesting characters

According to publicist and literary critic Dmitry Bykov, modern Russian prose uses outdated narrative techniques. Over the past 20 years, not a single living, interesting character has appeared whose name would become a household name.

In addition, unlike foreign authors who are trying to find a compromise between seriousness and mass appeal, Russian writers seem to be divided into two camps. The creators of the above-mentioned “pulp fiction” belong to the first group. The second includes representatives of intellectual prose. A lot of arthouse literature is being created that even the most sophisticated reader cannot understand, and not because it is extremely complex, but because it has no connection with modern reality.

Publishing business

Today in Russia, according to many critics, there are talented writers. But there aren't enough good publishers. Books by “promoted” authors regularly appear on the shelves of bookstores. Out of thousands of works of low-quality literature, not every publisher is ready to look for one that is worth attention.

Most of the books of the writers mentioned above reflect the events not of the beginning of the 21st century, but of the Soviet era. In Russian prose, according to one of the famous literary critics, nothing new has appeared over the past twenty years, since writers have nothing to talk about. In conditions of family disintegration, it is impossible to create a family saga. In a society in which priority is given to material issues, an instructive novel will not arouse interest.

One may not agree with such statements, but there really are no modern heroes in modern literature. Writers tend to turn to the past. Perhaps the situation in the literary world will soon change, authors will appear who are capable of creating books that will not lose popularity in a hundred or two hundred years.

1.Introduction

2.Search for a systematic analysis of the modern literary process.

3. Hypertextuality of modern Russian literature

4. The role of the writer’s creative individuality in the formation of the literary situation.

5. Conclusion.

• Today, in the depths of the modern literary process, such phenomena and movements as avant-garde and post-avant-garde, modern and postmodern, surrealism, impersionism, have been born or reanimated.

neosentimentalism, materialism, social art, conceptualism, etc.

• Literature voluntarily laid down

authority to act as a voice

public opinion and educator of human souls, and the places of positive heroes-beacons were taken by homeless people, alcoholics, murderers and representatives of ancient professions.

• If in 1986 the most read books according to the Book Review survey were: “Ulysses” by J. Joyce, “1984” by J. Orwell, “The Iron Woman” by N. Berberova, then in 1995

There is already a different kind of literature on the bestseller lists: “The Killer Profession,” “The Wolfhound’s Companions,” “The Filthy Cop.” This orientation of the mass reader has become a pressing problem in both school and university teaching of literature.

Morning

Veniamin Erofeev

Have you ever seen the sunrise? Have you ever watched how slowly, as if with incredible weight, the sun rises? When the first rays begin to dispel the darkness, liquefying and destroying it. When the sky turns from black to blue... in a matter of hours. And when, nevertheless, the first rays of the sun, which have just peeked out over the horizon, cut through the sky, you don’t think about anything and don’t listen to anything. Just watching. Because you won't see this anywhere else. And when you come to your senses, you wonder why you came back? Why aren't you there? What have you forgotten here?...

The intensification of the creativity of women writers at the end of the century is an objective and significant fact. Just as the beginning of the twentieth century was marked by the revival of women’s poetry, and modernism became a liberating element for the creativity of Russian women writers, who introduced freedom of feelings, individualism and subtle aestheticism into the culture of the Silver Age, so will the end

The century passes largely under the sign of the aesthetic discoveries of women writers.

A special place in genre form-making is occupied by dystopia. The evolution of dystopia, considered only from the 1990s to the end of the twentieth century, shows how complex and ramified the picture of genre mobility is. Losing its formal cruel features, it is enriched by new qualities, the main one of which is a unique worldview.

The complex picture of aesthetic dispersion is complemented by the situation in the region Russian poetry of the end centuries. It is generally accepted that prose dominates the modern literary process. Over the past decade, poetry has undergone an evolution from a state of almost complete booklessness to a situation where bookshelves and bookstore counters are sagging under the weight of poetry collections published either at the author's expense or at sponsorship in circulations of 300-500 copies. Poetry carries the same burden of time, the same aspirations to enter new specific zones of creativity. Poetry, more painfully than prose, feels the loss of reader attention and its own role as an emotional stimulant of society.

It is already stated in the titles of novels and is further implemented in tests: “Live in Moscow: manuscript as a novel” by D. Pirogov,"The Death of Tsar Feodor: micronovel" M.Yu. Druzhnikova, “Erosiped and other vignettes” by A. Zholkovsky. E. Popov defined the genre of his novel “Chaos” as collage novel, the title of the novel by S. Gandlevsky is “NRZB”, by N. Kononov - “gentle theater: shock novel."

What time period are we talking about when the term “modern Russian literature” is mentioned? Obviously, it dates back to 1991, receiving impetus for development after the collapse of the USSR. There is currently no doubt about the presence of this cultural phenomenon. Many literary critics agree that four generations of writers are behind its creation and development.

The sixties and modern literature

So, modern Russian literature did not arise out of nowhere immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the fall of the Iron Curtain. This happened largely due to the legalization of the works of writers of the sixties, previously prohibited from publication.

The newly discovered names of Fazil Iskander became known to the general public (the story “Constellation of Kozlotur”, the epic novel “Sandro from Chegem”); Vladimir Voinovich (novel “The Adventures of Ivan Chonkin”, novels “Moscow 2042”, “Design”); Vasily Aksenov (novels “Island of Crimea”, “Burn”), Valentin Rasputin (stories “Fire”, “Live and Remember”, story “French Lessons”).

Writers of the 70s

Together with the works of the generation of disgraced freethinkers of the sixties, modern Russian literature began with books of authors of the generation of the 70s that were permitted for publication. It was enriched by the works of Andrei Bitov (the novel “Pushkin’s House”, the collection “Apothecary Island”, the novel “The Flying Monks”); Venedikt Erofeeva (prose poem “Moscow - Petushki”, play “Dissidents, or Fanny Kaplan”); Victoria Tokareva (collections of stories “When it became a little warmer”, “About what did not happen”); Vladimir Makanin (stories “A table covered with cloth and with a decanter in the middle”, “One and One”), Lyudmila Petrushevskaya (stories “Thunderstrike”, “Never”).

Writers initiated by perestroika

The third generation of writers - creators of literature - was awakened to creativity directly by perestroika.

Modern Russian literature has been enriched with new bright names of its creators: Viktor Pelevin (novels “Chapaev and Emptiness”, “Life of Insects”, “Numbers”, “Empire V”, “T”, “Snuff”), Lyudmila Ulitskaya (novels “Medea and her children”, “Kukotsky’s Case”, “Sincerely yours Shurik”, “Daniel Stein, translator”, “Green Tent”); Tatyana Tolstoy (novel “Kys”, collections of stories “Okkervil River”, “If you love - you don’t love”, “Night”, “Day”, “Circle”); Vladimir Sorokin (stories “The Day of the Oprichnik”, “Blizzard”, novels “Norma”, “Telluria”, “Blue Lard”); Olga Slavnikova (novels “Dragonfly Enlarged to the Size of a Dog”, “Alone in the Mirror”, “2017”, “Immortal”, “Waltz with a Beast”).

New generation of writers

And finally, modern Russian literature of the 21st century has been replenished with a generation of young writers, the beginning of whose work fell directly on the period of state sovereignty of the Russian Federation. Young but already recognized talents include Andrei Gerasimov (novels “Steppe Gods”, “Razgulyaevka”, “Cold”); Denis Gutsko (the Russian-speaking dilogy); Ilya Kochergina (story “The Chinese Assistant”, stories “Wolves”, “Altynai”, “Altai Stories”); Ilya Stogoff (novels “Machos Don’t Cry”, “Apocalypse Yesterday”, “Revolution Now!”, collections of stories “Ten Fingers”, “Dogs of God”); Roman Senchin (novels “Information”, “Yeltyshevs”, “Flood Zone”).

Literary awards stimulate creativity

It is no secret that modern Russian literature of the 21st century is developing so rapidly thanks to numerous sponsorship awards. Additional motivation encourages authors to further develop their creativity. In 1991, the Russian Booker Prize was approved under the auspices of the British company British Petrolium.

In 2000, thanks to the sponsorship of the construction and investment company "Vistcom", another major award was established - "Natsbest". And finally, the most significant is the “Big Book”, established in 2005 by the Gazprom company. The total number of existing literary awards in the Russian Federation is approaching one hundred. Thanks to literary awards, the writing profession has become fashionable and prestigious; the Russian language and modern literature received a significant impetus to their development; the previously dominant method of realism in literature was supplemented by new directions.

Thanks to active writers (which is manifested in works of literature), it develops as a communicative system through further universalization, that is, through the borrowing of syntactic structures, individual words, speech patterns from vernacular, professional communication, and various dialects.

Styles of modern literature. Popular literature

Works of modern Russian literature are created by their authors in various styles, among which mass literature, postmodernism, blogger literature, dystopian novel, and literature for clerks stand out. Let's take a closer look at these areas.

Mass literature today continues the traditions of entertaining literature of the end of the last century: fantasy, science fiction, detective, melodrama, adventure novel. However, at the same time, there is an adjustment to the modern rhythm of life, to rapid scientific progress. Readers of mass literature make up the largest share of its market in Russia. Indeed, it attracts different age groups of the population, representatives of various levels of education. Among works of mass literature, compared to books of other literary styles, there are most of all bestsellers, that is, works that have peak popularity.

The development of modern Russian literature today is largely determined by the creators of books with maximum circulations: Boris Akunin, Sergei Lukyanenko, Daria Dontsova, Polina Dashkova, Alexandra Marinina, Evgeniy Grishkovets, Tatyana Ustinova.

Postmodernism

Postmodernism as a direction in Russian literature arose in the 90s of the last century. Its first adherents were writers of the 70s, and representatives of this trend contrasted realism with an ironic attitude towards communist ideology. They demonstrated in artistic form evidence of the crisis of totalitarian ideology. Their baton was continued by Vasily Aksenov “Island of Crimea” and Vladimir Voinovich “The Adventures of Soldier Chonkin”. Then they were joined by Vladimir Sorokin and Anatoly Korolev. However, Viktor Pelevin’s star shone brighter than all other representatives of this trend. Each book by this author (and they are published approximately once a year) gives a subtle artistic description of the development of society.

Russian literature at the present stage is developing ideologically thanks to postmodernism. His characteristic irony, the dominance of chaos over order inherent in changes in the social system, and the free combination of artistic styles determine the universality of the artistic palette of its representatives. In particular, Viktor Pelevin in 2009 was informally awarded the honor of being considered a leading intellectual in Russia. The originality of his style lies in the fact that the writer used his unique interpretation of Buddhism and personal liberation. His works are multipolar, they include many subtexts. Victor Pelevin is considered a classic of postmodernism. His books have been translated into all languages ​​of the world, including Japanese and Chinese.

Novels - dystopias

Modern trends in Russian literature have also contributed to the development of the genre of the dystopian novel, which is relevant during periods of change in the social paradigm. The generic features of this genre are the representation of the surrounding reality not directly, but already perceived by the consciousness of the protagonist.

Moreover, the main idea of ​​such works is the conflict between the individual and a totalitarian society of the imperial type. According to its mission, such a novel is a book of warning. Among the works of this genre one can name the novels “2017” (author - O. Slavnikova), “Underground” by V. Makanin, “ZhD” by D. Bykov, “Moscow 2042” by V. Voinovich, “Empire V” by V. Pelevin.

Blogger literature

The problems of modern Russian literature are most fully covered in the genre of blogger works. This type of literature has both common features with traditional literature and significant differences. Like traditional literature, this genre performs cultural, educational, ideological, and relaxation functions.

But, unlike it, it has a communicative function and a socialization function. It is blogger literature that fulfills the mission of communication between participants in the literary process in Russia. Blogger literature performs functions inherent in journalism.

It is more dynamic than traditional literature because it uses small genres (reviews, sketches, information notes, essays, short poems, short stories). It is characteristic that the blogger’s work, even after its publication, is not closed or complete. After all, any comment that follows is not a separate, but an organic part of the blog work. Among the most popular literary blogs on the Runet are the “Russian Book Community”, the “Discussing Books” community, the “What to Read?” community.

Conclusion

Modern Russian literature today is in the process of its creative development. Many of our contemporaries read the dynamic works of Boris Akunin, enjoy the subtle psychologism of Lyudmila Ulitskaya, follow the intricacies of fantasy plots by Vadim Panov, and try to feel the pulse of time in the works of Viktor Pelevin. Today we have the opportunity to assert that in our time, unique writers create unique literature.

“Literature for a people deprived of public freedom is the only platform from the height of which they make them hear the cry of their indignation and their conscience,” wrote A.I. Herzen in the last century. For the first time in the entire centuries-old history of Russia, the government has now given us freedom of speech and press. But, despite the enormous role of the media, our country is the ruler of thoughts, raising layer after layer of problems in our history and life. Maybe E. Yevtushenko was right when he said: “A poet in Russia is more than a poet!..”.

In today's literature one can very clearly trace the artistic, historical, socio-political significance of a literary work in connection with the socio-political situation of the era. This formulation means that the characteristics of the era are reflected in the theme chosen by the author, his characters, and artistic means. These features can give a work great social and political significance. Thus, in the era of the decline of serfdom and the nobility, a number of works about “superfluous people” appeared, including the famous “Hero of Our Time” by M.Yu. Lermontov. The very name of the novel and the controversy surrounding it showed its social significance in the era of the Nikolaev reaction. A.I. Solzhenitsyn’s story “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich,” published during the period of criticism of Stalinism in the early 60s, was also of great importance. Modern works demonstrate an even greater connection than before between the era and the literary work. Now the task is to revive the rural owner. Literature responds to it with books about the dispossession and de-peasantization of the village.

The close connection between modernity and history even gives rise to new genres (for example, the novel - chronicle) and new visual means: documents are introduced into the text, time travel for many decades is popular, and more. The same applies to problems of environmental protection. It can't be tolerated anymore. The desire to help society forces writers, for example Valentin Rasputin, to move from novels and stories to journalism.

The first theme that unites a very large number of works written during the 50s - 80s is the problem of historical memory. The epigraph to it could be the words of Academician D.S. Likhachev: “Memory is active. It does not leave a person indifferent or inactive. She controls the mind and heart of a person. Memory resists the destructive power of time. This is the greatest meaning of memory."

“Blank spots” were formed (or rather, they were formed by those who constantly adapted history to their interests) not only in the history of the entire country, but also in its individual regions. Viktor Likhonosov’s book “Our Little Paris” about Kuban. He believes its historians owe a debt to their land. “Children grew up without knowing their native history.” About two years ago the writer was in America, where he met with residents of the Russian colony, emigrants and their descendants from the Kuban Cossacks. A storm of reader letters and responses was caused by the publication of the novel - the chronicle of Anatoly Znamensky “Red Days”, which reported new facts from the history of the civil war on the Don. The writer himself did not immediately come to the truth and only in the sixties realized that “we know nothing at all about that era.” In recent years, several new works have been published, such as Sergei Alekseev’s novel “Sedition,” but there is still a lot unknown.

The theme of those innocently repressed and tortured during the years of Stalin's terror is especially prominent. Alexander Solzhenitsyn did a tremendous amount of work in his “GULAG Archipelago.” In the afterword to the book, he says: “I stopped working not because I considered the book finished, but because there was no more life left for it. I not only ask for leniency, but I want to shout: when the time comes, the opportunity comes, gather together, friends, survivors, those who know well, and write another comment next to this one...” Thirty-four years have passed since they were written, no, these words are engraved on my heart. Solzhenitsyn himself has already edited the book abroad, dozens of new evidence have come out, and this call will remain, apparently, for many decades, both to the contemporaries of those tragedies, and to the descendants, before whom the archives of the executioners will finally open. After all, even the number of victims is unknown!.. The victory of democracy in August 1991 gives hope that the archives will soon be opened.

And therefore, the words of the already mentioned writer Znamensky seem to me not entirely true: “And how much should have been said about the past, it seems to me, has already been said by A.I. Solzhenitsyn, and in “Kolyma Stories” by Varlam Shalamov, and in the story “Bas-relief on rock" Aldan - Semenova. And I myself, 25 years ago, during the years of the so-called Thaw, paid tribute to this topic; my story about the camps entitled “Without Repentance”... was published in the magazine “North” (N10, 1988).” No, I think witnesses and historians still have to work hard.

Much has already been written about Stalin’s victims and executioners. I note that a continuation of the novel “Children of the Arbat” by A. Rybakov, “The Thirty-Fifth and Other Years,” has been published, in which many pages are devoted to the secret springs of the preparation and conduct of the trials of the 30s against the former leaders of the Bolshevik Party.

Thinking about Stalin’s time, your thoughts involuntarily turn to the revolution. And today it is seen in many ways differently. “We are told that the Russian revolution did not bring anything, that we have great poverty. Absolutely right. But... We have a perspective, we see a way out, we have the will, the desire, we see the path before us...” - this is how N. Bukharin wrote. Now we are wondering: what did this will do to the country, where did this path lead and where is the way out. In search of an answer, we begin to turn to the origins, to October.

It seems to me that A. Solzhenitsyn explores this topic more deeply than anyone else. Moreover, these issues are addressed in many of his books. But the main work of this writer about the origins and beginning of our revolution is the multi-volume “Red Wheel”. We have already printed parts of it - “August the fourteenth”, “October the sixteenth”. The four-volume “March the Seventeenth” is also being published. Alexander Isaevich continues to work hard on the epic.

Solzhenitsyn persistently does not recognize not only the October, but also the February revolution, considering the overthrow of the monarchy a tragedy of the Russian people. He argues that the morality of the revolution and revolutionaries is inhumane and inhumane; the leaders of revolutionary parties, including Lenin, are unprincipled and think, first of all, about personal power. It is impossible to agree with him, but it is also impossible not to listen, especially since the writer uses a huge number of facts and historical evidence. I would like to note that this outstanding writer has already agreed to return to his homeland.

There are similar discussions about the revolution in the memoirs of the writer Oleg Volkov, “Plunge into Darkness.” The author, an intellectual and a patriot in the best sense of the word, spent 28 years in prison and exile. He writes: “In the more than two years that my father lived after the revolution, it was already clearly and irrevocably determined: the harshly tamed peasant and the somewhat softer bridled worker had to identify themselves with the authorities. But it was no longer possible to talk about this, to expose imposture and deception, to explain that the iron lattice of the new order leads to enslavement and the formation of an oligarchy. Yes, and it’s useless...”

Is this the way to evaluate the revolution?! It's hard to say; only time will make a final verdict. Personally, I do not consider this point of view correct, but it is also difficult to refute it: you will not forget either about Stalinism or about the deep crisis of today. It is also clear that it is no longer possible to study the revolution and civil war from the films “Lenin in October”, “Chapaev” or from V. Mayakovsky’s poems “Vladimir Ilyich Lenin” and “Good”. The more we learn about this era, the more independently we will come to some conclusions. A lot of interesting things about this time can be gleaned from Shatrov’s plays, B. Pasternak’s novel “Doctor Zhivago”, V. Grossman’s story “Everything Flows” and others.

If there are sharp differences in the assessment of the revolution, then everyone condemns Stalin’s collectivization. And how can it be justified if it led to the ruin of the country, the death of millions of hardworking owners, and a terrible famine! And again I would like to quote Oleg Volkov about the time close to the “great turning point”:

“Then they were just organizing the mass transportation of robbed men into the abyss of the desert expanses of the North. For the time being, they snatched it selectively: they would impose an “individual” unpaid tax, wait a little, and then declare him a saboteur. And then there’s lafa: confiscate the property and throw it in prison!...”

Vasily Belov tells us about the village before the collective farm in the novel “Eves”. The continuation is “The Year of the Great Turnaround, Chronicle of 9 Months,” which describes the beginning of collectivization. One of the true works about the tragedy of the peasantry during the period of collectivization is the novel - the chronicle of Boris Mozhaev “Men and Women”. The writer, relying on documents, shows how that stratum in the village is formed and takes power, which prospers from the ruin and misfortune of fellow villagers and is ready to be fierce in order to please the authorities. The author shows that the culprits of the “excesses” and “dizziness from success” are those who ruled the country.

The topic of war seems to have been thoroughly studied and described in literature. But suddenly one of our most honest writers, Viktor Astafiev, himself a participant in the war, writes: “... as a soldier, I have nothing to do with what is written about the war. I was in a completely different war... Half-truths tormented us...” Yes, it is difficult to wean ourselves from the usual images of noble Soviet soldiers and despicable enemies that have been emerging for decades from war books and films. We learn from the newspapers that among the German pilots there were many who shot down 100 and even 300 Soviet aircraft. And our heroes Kozhedub and Pokryshkin are only a few dozen. Still would! It turns out that sometimes Soviet cadets flew for only 18 hours - and then went into battle! And the planes, especially during the war, were unimportant. Konstantin Simonov in “The Living and the Dead” perfectly described how pilots died because our “hawks” were “plywood”. We learn a lot of truth about the war from V. Grossman’s novel “Life and Fate”, from the conversations of Solzhenitsyn’s heroes - prisoners, former front-line soldiers, in the novel “In the First Circle”, in other works of our writers.

In the books of modern authors, there is an excellent theme of protecting and preserving our nature. Sergei Zalygin believes that in the face of the catastrophe and tragedy that is approaching us, today there is no more important and significant task than ecology. One could name the works of Astafiev, Belov, Rasputin (including his latest - about Siberia and Baikal), Aitmatov and many others.

The topic of nature conservation is also closely related to moral problems and the search for answers to “eternal” questions. For example, in Chingiz Aitmatov’s novel “The Scaffold”, both themes - the death of nature and immorality - complement each other. This writer also raises themes of universal human values ​​in his new novel “Our Lady of the Snows.”

Among the moral problems, writers are very concerned about the moral savagery of some of our youth. This is noticeable even to foreigners. One of the foreign journalists writes: “People of the West... sometimes know more about some historical events in the Soviet Union than Russian youth. Such historical deafness... led to the development of a generation of young people who know neither villains nor heroes and worship only the stars of Western rock music.” Andrei Voznesensky’s poem “The Ditch” is permeated with indignation and pain, in which the author pilloried grave robbers, scumbags who, for the sake of profit, do what the poet writes in the afterword, that they dig “in skeletons, next to a living road, to crumble the skull and tearing out crowns with pliers in the headlights.” “What must a person reach, how corrupted must consciousness be?!” - the reader exclaims along with the author.

It is difficult to list all the themes that have been heard in the best works of recent years. All this indicates that “our literature is now keeping pace with perestroika and is justifying its purpose.”

Modern literature is a collection of prose and poetic works written at the end of the 20th century. – beginning of the 21st century.

Classics of modern literature

In broad terms, modern literature includes works created after the Second World War. In the history of Russian literature, there are four generations of writers who have become classics of modern literature:

• First generation: writers of the sixties, whose work occurred during the “Khrushchev Thaw” of the 1960s. Representatives of the time - V.P. Aksenov, V.N. Voinovich, V.G. Rasputin - are characterized by a manner of ironic sadness and a passion for memoirs;
• Second generation: the seventies - Soviet writers of the 1970s, whose activities were limited by prohibitions - V.V. Erofeev, A.G. Bitov, L.S. Petrushevskaya, V.S. Makanin;
• Third generation: writers of the 1980s who came to literature during perestroika - V. O. Pelevin, T. N. Tolstaya, O. A. Slavnikova, V. G. Sorokin - wrote in conditions of creative freedom, which believed in getting rid of censorship and mastering experiments;
• Fourth generation: writers of the late 1990s, prominent representatives of prose literature - D. N. Gutsko, G. A. Gelasimov, R. V. Senchin, Prilepin, S. A. Shargunov.

Features of modern literature

Modern literature follows classical traditions: works of modern times are based on the ideas of realism, modernism, postmodernism; but, from the point of view of versatility, it is a special phenomenon in the literary process.

Fiction of the 21st century seeks to move away from genre predetermination, as a result of which canonical genres become marginal. Classic genre forms of the novel, short story, and story are practically never found; they exist with features that are not characteristic of them and often contain elements of not only different genres, but also related types of art. The known forms are the film novel (A. A. Belov “The Brigade”), the philological novel (A. A. Genis “Dovlatov and the Surroundings”), and the computer novel (V. O. Pelevin “Helmet of Horror”).

Thus, modifications of established genres lead to the formation of unique genre forms, which is primarily due to the separation of fiction from mass literature, which carries genre definition.

Elite literature

Currently, the prevailing opinion among researchers is that modern literature is poetry and prose of the last decades, the transition period at the turn of the 20th-21st centuries. Depending on the purpose of modern works, elite and mass, or popular, literature are distinguished.

Elite literature - “high literature”, which was created in a narrow circle of writers, clergy, artists and was accessible only to the elite. Elite literature is opposed to mass literature, but at the same time it is a source for texts adapted to the level of mass consciousness. Simplified versions of texts by W. Shakespeare, L. N. Tolstoy and F. M. Dostoevsky contribute to the spread of spiritual values ​​among the masses.

Popular literature

Mass literature, unlike elitist literature, does not go beyond the genre canon, is accessible and focused on mass consumption and commercial demand. The rich genre variety of popular literature includes romance, adventure, action, detective, thriller, science fiction, fantasy, etc.

The most popular and widely circulated work of mass literature is the bestseller. The worldwide bestsellers of the 21st century include the series of novels about Harry Potter by J. Rowling, the series of publications by S. Mayer “Twilight”, the book by G. D. Roberts “Shantaram”, etc.

It is noteworthy that popular literature is often associated with cinema - many popular publications have been filmed. For example, the American TV series “Game of Thrones” is based on the series of novels by George R. R. Martin “A Song of Ice and Fire.”