The story of my drinking At the Belarusian Film Studio, director Leonid Belozorovich began filming the series “White Clothes” based on the then cult book of the same name by Vladimir Dudintsev. I was offered the main role of biologist Fyodor Ivanovich Dezhkin. I was beside myself with joy, which

Full text of the dissertation abstract on the topic ""The History of My Contemporary" V.G. Korolenko: Artistic Originality"

As a manuscript

SAVELIEVA Elena Sergeevna

“THE HISTORY OF MY CONTEMPORARY” V. G. KOROLENKO: ARTISTIC ORIGINALITY

Krasnodar 2009,

The work was carried out at the Department of Literature and Teaching Methods of the Pedagogical Institute of Southern Federal University

Scientific supervisor: candidate philological sciences, assistant professor

Tukodyan Nvart Khazarosovna

Official opponents: Doctor of Philology, Professor

Prokurova Natalya Sergeevna Candidate of Philological Sciences Panaetov Oleg Grigorievich

Leading organization: Krasnodar State

University of Culture and Arts

The defense will take place ")[>> TsuTsR^SL 2009 at a meeting of the dissertation council D 212.101.04 at Kuban State University at the address: 350018, Krasnodar, st. Sormovskaya, 7, room. 309.

The dissertation can be found in the scientific library of Kuban State University (350040, Krasnodar, Stavropolskaya St., 149).

Scientific secretary of the dissertation council< 7 М.А.Шахбазян

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF WORK

Currently, there is a tendency in the literature to address problems classical literature. AND; Now, after many years, the works of writers who created the culture of the Russian people, laid the foundations of the modern Russian language, and participated in historical events. Undoubtedly, one of these writers is Vladimir Galakshyuvich Korolenko, a great humanist, fighter for justice and freedom, author of many artistic and journalistic works, in particular, the memoir-novel “The History of My Contemporary.”

Research by scientists in the field classical works are being carried out in two directions: firstly, these are attempts at a new interpretation of texts that have already become textbooks, studied by many generations of scientists, and secondly, the search for new classical works that have not yet received the attention of science. “The History of My Contemporary” by V. G. Korolenko, undoubtedly, is one of the works insufficiently covered in literary criticism: in the works of recent years, researchers have limited themselves to problem-chemical analysis or analysis of genre specifics individual works or cycles.

“The History of My Contemporary” by V. G. Korolenko, being a highly moral work that reflects the essential features of the past, is modern in its ideological orientation and should be in the reading circle of the modern reader, therefore it seems promising to us to further study both the whole art of V. G. Korolenko’s work and and some of his works in terms of the author’s worldview, the moral evolution of the hero and the narrative structure.

Nowadays, it is necessary to turn more often to works of classical literature for many reasons. So, firstly, many undeservedly ignored

literary critics and the public, the works raise problems that are not alien to modern times. Works with documentary elements help a person, by looking into the past and understanding the problems of past years, to understand his own time. Secondly, referring to “The History of My Contemporary” as a work major genre allows us to evaluate some trends in the modern literary process. Thirdly, the works of the classics are highly ideological, and by reading them, a person increases his cultural level.

In this dissertation research, an attempt was made, based on classical works and the works of modern researchers: philologists, partly philosophers, teachers, linguists and cultural experts, to determine the place of “The History of My Contemporary” in Russian autobiographical literature and in the works of V. G. Korolenko, as well as explore the main features of the poetics of “The History of My Contemporary”.

Relevance of the dissertation. 1. The novel in question, “The History of My Contemporary,” is rightfully considered one of the pinnacle creations in Russian literature, but no special research has been carried out on this work. 2. Addressing this novel by V. G. Korolenko as a work with documentary elements allows, by looking into the past and understanding the problems of past years, to understand one’s own time both from the point of view of literary criticism and from the point of view of history.

The novelty of the dissertation. 1. In a dissertation research, the autobiographical novel-memoir “The History of My Contemporary” by V. G. Korolenko is subjected to such a comprehensive study for the first time. 2. Significantly new judgments about the specifics of this work as a kind of genre symbiosis. We define the genre of “Stories of My Contemporary” as an autobiographical memoir novel. Z. During the literary analysis of the work, we presented for the first time a classification of literary portraits of the novel, a number of significant conclusions were made,

concerning the architectonics of the work, the features of the image of the characters and the specifics of the chronotope.

The object of the study is the autobiographical novel-memoir “The History of My Contemporary” by V. G. Korolenko.

Purpose of the study. Having comprehended theoretical aspects problems of the genre of a work with an autobiographical orientation, determine the place of “The History of My Contemporary” in the context of the work of V. G. Korolenko and consider the poetics of this memoir-novel.

To achieve this goal, it seems necessary to solve a number of problems:

4) consider the features of the genre of the work;

5) explore the system of images, the features of literary portraits of “The History of My Contemporary”, classify them;

6) study the chronotopic structure of the novel.

The theoretical and methodological basis of the dissertation research is the principles of cultural-historical and comparative-historical research methods, as well as the provisions and concepts developed in the works of M. M. Bakhtin, B. O. Korman, Yu. M. Lotman, D. S. Likhachev , G. O. Vinokura, V. V. Vinogradova, G. N. Pospelova, G. A. Beloy, B. M. Eikhenbaum, Yu. N. Tynyanova, L. Ya. Ginzburg, S. S. Averintseva, A G. Tartakovsky, N. A. Nikolina, A. B. Esin, I. O. Shaitanov and others.

The literary categories used are considered historically and theoretically, the history of the formation of the genre of artistic autobiography is traced, attempts are made to analyze the principles of creating images of heroes, identifying artistic means of expression author's position in an autobiographical novel-memoir.

When determining the place of “The History of My Contemporary” in the writer’s work, we studied the works of D. N. Ovsyaniko-Kulikovsky, N. D. Shakhovskaya, G. A. Vyaly, as well as dissertation research in recent years (G. Z. Gorbunova, Yu. G . Gushchin, P. E. Lion, V. E. Tatarinova, A. V. Trukhanenko, etc.), dedicated to the work of V. G. Korolenko. The theoretical significance of the dissertation lies in the fact that the work represents a single study dedicated to the autobiographical novel-memoir “The History of My Contemporary” by V. G. Korolenko, determines its significance and artistic originality.

"The scientific and practical value of this dissertation research lies in the possibility of using its results when teaching university courses on the history of Russian literature of the second half of the 20th century, special courses on the works of V. G. Korolenko and writers of the sixties, as well as for further research of the works of V. G. Korolenko.

Main provisions submitted for defense:

1) “The History of My Contemporary” takes central position in the work of V. G. Korolenko thanks to the analytical form of thinking of the writer, the specific ideological orientation of the work and its value paradigm.

2) “History” of my contemporary” V. G. Korolenko ---

an autobiographical memoir novel with specific features characteristic of this genre: the fusion of various genres, the selection of images, methods of psychological depiction of heroes, the creation of a special chronotope.

Approbation. The main provisions of the dissertation research were the subject of discussion at meetings of the Department of Russian Literature and Teaching Methods of the Pedagogical Institute of the Southern Federal University, and are also reflected in 3 publications of the author and presented in 4 reports at conferences at various levels (international scientific conference^ “Conceptual problems of literature: fiction cognition", Rostov-on-Don, international scientific conference (correspondence) of the XXIII Chekhov readings in Taganrog, scientific conference - XI Sheshukov readings "Historiosophy in Russian literature of the 20th and 19th centuries: traditions and A New Look" Moscow) with subsequent publication of articles.

Structure and scope of the dissertation. The work consists of an introduction, two chapters, a conclusion and a bibliography of 214 titles. When working with texts, we studied two collected works of V. G. Korolenko: in 9 volumes, 1914, and in 10 volumes, 1954. References in the text of the dissertation are based on the later collected works.

The total volume of the dissertation is 189 pages.

The introduction defines the subject, goals and objectives of the research, establishes the degree of knowledge of the problem, relevance, scientific novelty, research material, and also identifies a number of issues related to the problem of studying biographical literature in domestic literary criticism.

The first chapter of the dissertation research, “The History of My Contemporary” in the Context of the Epoch,” has four paragraphs.

In the first paragraph. “Prerequisites for the appearance of “The History of My Contemporary” in the works of V. G. Korolenko: analyticism as a form of thinking of the writer,” we consider novelistic thinking

the creator, which is a prerequisite for the creation of a work of a major genre. In developing this thesis, we rely on the judgments of V. Belinsky and M. Bakhtin about the syncretism of the novel genre, its versatility and ability to influence other genres (the concept of novelization of genres). Using the example of Korolenko’s stories and novellas, we examine the formation of a large genre form in his work and find in “The History of My Contemporary” the features of a complex genre symbiosis, a combination in the structure of the work of many genres: autobiography, memoirs, novel, diary, short story, essay, article. Reading “The History of My Contemporary”, we can observe how the idea of ​​​​certain works was born, their details were laid down, we see elements of intertextuality: “Having passed Tobolsk, our barge began to rise north along the Irtysh, and the wonderful views of the Volga and Kama replaced the dull ones for us banks of Siberian rivers with rare settlements. Here I surrendered to my memories and wrote an essay “The Unreal City,” in which, strongly imitating Uspensky, I described Glazov” (vol. 7, p. 159). In the work we found more than 65 references to the texts of stories, articles, letters of V. G. Korolenko. Thus, we conclude that “The History of My Contemporary” is the logical result of the entire work of V. G. Korolenko; it follows from previous works, simultaneously enclosing them. One cannot help but pay attention to the journalistic elements in all of Korolenko’s work. Almost every work has a subtitle that speaks of its genre or the place where it was written or the idea originated (“From a trip to Vetluga and Kerzhenets”, “From Siberian life”). The system of genres to which the author himself classifies his works seems to us extensive and diverse. We find here both generally accepted titles (short story, tale, essay) and rare variations of small genres (pictures, pages, excerpts). In addition to the above-mentioned genres of documentary prose, V. G. Korolenko has works belonging to allegorical genres (fairy tale, legend, fantasy), but most of his

In genre terms, Korolenko’s works are classified as documentary biographical prose (portrait, letter, memoirs, observations):

Korolenko’s work is characterized by a multi-stage cyclization system. The works are grouped according to the main characters’ belonging to a particular social group, for example, cycles of essays (“Pavlov’s Sketches,” “At the Cossacks,” “In a Hungry Year”), cycles of stories “about tramps,” “about random people.” There are also macrocycles that unite works by genre: essays, short stories, lyrical miniatures, works of conventional genres (Siberian, children's). In addition to this, in genre system Korolenko can be distinguished by topic into the Volga, American and Romanian macrocycles.

The cycle is a step towards mastering the great novel form. The writer did not limit himself to partially developing the theme in one or two stories. He tried to express everything, to exhaust the topic to the end. One story led to another - and multiple cycles arose: Siberian, children's, “Pavlovsk Sketches”, cycles of essays “In the Hungry Year”, “Sorochinskaya Tragedy” and others.

This fact of cyclization of works undoubtedly speaks of V. G. Korolenko’s attraction to a large epic form. Thus, novelistic thinking determines the movement of genres in the writer’s work.

“The History of My Contemporary” is built from many essays and stories, united by the image of the main character - the author, presented by him in chronological order. At the same time, many of the components of the novel are unthinkable outside of it (they do not have an ending or beginning, their motives are tightly connected with the motives of other stories), but others can exist separately. Also in the novel we see elements of parallel construction (the division of characters into groups with diverse events occurring simultaneously). These parallels stem from the ideological views and value guidelines of the writer.

Second paragraph. “Korolenko’s historiosophical, value paradigm (orientation) in the embodiment of fate, choice, law.

human responsibility and the picture of the world,” is dedicated to the artistic and stylistic system of the writer’s concept and his moral and ethical program, reflected in “The History of My Contemporary” in comparison with some stories.

In the literary life of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, many qualitative changes occurred related to the process of renewal and transformation of already existing literary movements, the emergence and movement of new ones. The complication of the literary process (multiplicity of currents and directions, extraordinary mobility and rapid change of forms and styles, sharp polemics) is also due to the multi-structure characteristic of a huge country, the combination of elements of different historical stages, which is why there was an extraordinary complexity in the manifestation of socio-ideological conflicts. At the same time, there were such diverse, heterogeneous, sometimes opposing trends as the boundless aestheticism of adherents of “pure art” and the asceticism of the late Tolstoy, the desire of Chekhov and Korolenko to go beyond the circle of only literary work, the emergence of literature of the Gorky direction.

However, it is possible to identify a feature that unites these many-sided phenomena: in literature, as in life, the problem of man, his personality, dignity, and value is raised with particular force. The great merit of Tolstoy, Chekhov, Korolenko was that in their artistic model of social existence they depicted the people as a value center with which everything else was correlated.

The question of personality in literature cannot be considered without connection with the humanistic concept of the writer, with his “idea of ​​man.”

“The fact of the matter is that there is no “man”, one and indivisible, just a man; there are Fedots, Ivans, poor people, rich people, beggars and kulaks, virtuous and vicious, caring and drunkards, living on a full allotment, and donors, with plots of one bast shoe, owners and workers... The fact of the matter is that we the people all seem to have the same face, and by the first peasant we judge all peasants” (vol. 9, p.

166). The writer depicts the people not as a homogeneous faceless mass, but embodies their destinies in specific, vivid artistic images.

The objects of our attention are the problems of fate, freedom, in particular free choice, and morality.

“Isn’t this our task to love this people?” - this is the problem posed by the author. Even having sunk to the bottom of life, dark, rude, people remain people, live as best they can, love, give birth to children, no matter how difficult their lot is. We see that, revealing this or that problem, Korolenko returns to it more than once in his subsequent works, and this feature again makes it possible to affirm the novelism of V. G. Korolenko’s thinking.

The third paragraph of the first chapter is called “The ideological content of “The History of My Contemporary” and its compositional expression in the novel.” Based on philosophical and literary definitions of idea, ideology, aesthetic ideal, we see that they are closely related.

The Dictionary of Philosophical Terms defines an ideal as follows: “a model, something sublime, good and beautiful, the highest goal of aspiration” (p. 245).

In art, the aesthetic ideal is the artistic world that arises from the correlation of life as it is and as it should be, however, the ideal must be derived from reality, based more on reality than on the fictional world.

Our thought in determining the ideological content is guided by the author’s understanding of the idea of ​​his novel.

“Now I see much of what my generation dreamed of and fought for, bursting into the arena of life in an alarming and stormy way. I think that many episodes from the time of my exile wanderings, events, meetings, thoughts and feelings of people of that time and that environment have not lost the interest of living reality itself. I would like to think that they will still retain their significance for the future” (vol. 5, p. 7).

Depicting the events of the life of his “contemporary”, V. G. Korolenko unfolds before the reader a panorama of the life of society in the 1860s-1880s of the 19th century, including the event aspect (outstanding historical events that took place at that time), the socio-political aspect (changes in the status of many people, development of social revolutionary movement), literary-aesthetic aspect (the influence of literature on people and people on literature).

In the preface to “The History of My Contemporary,” V. G. Korolenko wrote: “There will be nothing here that I have not encountered in reality, that I have not experienced, felt, or seen” (vol. 5, p. 8). The autobiographical nature of this work did not prevent it from becoming a chronicle of an entire generation. D. N. Ovsyaniko-Kulikovsky (141) argued that Korolenko’s memoirs can be placed next to L. N. Tolstoy’s “Childhood” and “Adolescence”, and the brightness of the reconstruction of the era, as well as the depth and significance of reflections, they resemble “The Past and Thoughts” » Herzen.

“History...” is a broad epic narrative about the dramatic, truly tragic fate of the generation of the 1870s. In the foreground in the novel are thoughts about the people, about their capabilities. Korolenko draws attention to the overly bookish, abstract theoretical nature of the legacy of the “sixties”. Korolenko rejected “going to the people” and Narodnaya Volya terrorism as naive-utopian theories. The writer does not join any of the existing underground revolutionary organizations, seeing in them a sectarian character, revolutionaries without a people. Korolenko preferred to act openly, with the pen of a publicist and artist. His work, in particular “The History of My Contemporary,” represents a reflection of the writer’s political and social views.

Korolenko begins the story about himself from infancy. This technique corresponds to the canons of the genre and is used by the author to identify the sources of the formation of his personality, nature, and predispositions. In the first parts the author uses, of course,

the method of direct recollection, but given the hero’s young age and often the spontaneity and inaccuracy of his judgments, Korolenko sometimes has to create full picture what happened, introduce inserted episodes (for example, separated into separate chapters “My Father”, “Father and Mother”), narratives full of facts, dates and events that could not be known to a little boy.

Another form of such explanations is a short episode that is not singled out compositionally, explaining the child’s feelings. Here an adult explains from the height of his years what he felt then and what, according to his current ideas, caused it. “During this painful period of my childhood life, the memory of God was very formless. With this word, somewhere in the depths of consciousness, an idea was born of something vast and completely bright, but impersonal. The closest thing would be to say that it seemed to me like a distant and huge spot sunlight. But the light did not work at night, and the night was entirely in the power of a hostile, other world, which, together with the darkness, was moving into the limits of ordinary life"(vol. 5, p. 45).

V. G. Korolenko also describes works of art that had a great influence on him (the book “Fomka from Sandomierz” by Jan Gregorovich, the historical theater play “Ursula, or Sigismund III”). Describing the process of his acquaintance with these works, the writer, relying on actually occurring events and his immediate impressions, gives a story with elements of analysis, determining their belonging to literary movements (book-sentimentalism, play-romanticism).

The individual’s striving for an emotionally anticipated universal ideal indicates a romantic current in a work written, undoubtedly, in the realistic tradition.

In the dissertation we consider the transformation of the ideal of V. G. Korolenko. When the writer was in childhood, it can be argued that his father had the traits of an ideal for him. However

From a very early age, Korolenko was inclined to look at everything from different sides, so he perfectly saw its ambiguous qualities or disadvantages. Having drawn attention to several false ideals (Theodor Negri, Vasily Veselitsky), we come to the conclusion that the image of Kliment Arkadyevich Timiryazev is closest to the ideal in the writer’s understanding.

When, already in the first days of exile, Korolenko concludes: “No, I will no longer go into the service of this state with the Livens and Valuevs at the top, with a network of petty, irresistible predation below. This is the decaying past... And I will go towards the unknown future,” we are convinced that the real ideal is the author himself. The minute when a person is visited by such a strong feeling is very important for his self-determination and the course of his entire life. later life. In “The History of My Contemporary” a feature clearly emerges that can be called programmatic: the author gives the personal, intimate the character of social value and interest. In the era reproduced by the writer, one can feel living people, living life and, above all, one’s own humane, righteous soul of the contemporary - and in the personal and one’s own, the socially valuable of the experience is refracted, and not the accidental and narrowly individualistic.

We analyze the features of the plot and construction of the plot in Korolenko, relying on the author’s compositional decision. “The History of My Contemporary” is equipped with a detailed system of titles of parts and chapters. This attraction to headings and subheadings is explained by the high journalistic nature of V. G. Korolenko’s works.

Intertextual headings (chapters) can be divided into several main groups related to the thematic range of the novel and its chronotopic structure. We distinguish the following groups:

1) A static description of the current situation in a particular place, as well as a description of a group of people: “Old students”, “Workers”, etc.

2) Individual portrait descriptions specific personalities: “Father and Mother”, “Alexander Kapitonovich Malikov”.

3) Narration of events extended over time: “I find myself in a den of robbers”, “Arrival in Perm”.

"We carried out calculations and calculations that allow us to testify to the distribution of material in the novel, and concluded that the distribution of textual material in the novel reflects the real content of the life period being described. The author, dividing the “History...” into chapters in accordance with the periods of development of the hero, simultaneously identifies the dominants of each period (Childhood - development, description of the situation; student years, first link - development, eventful; period of exile - portrait sketches, description of the situation.)

Also in this paragraph, we emphasize the connection between content and form, arguing that the division of a work into architectural parts (books, chapters) is subordinated to the author’s main idea: to reflect the story of his life in his time, therefore the main criterion for delimiting chapters is the importance of certain events for the author, their stages in his life, influence on his future fate.

Fourth paragraph. "The author's concept of the creative personality of V. G. Korolenko (hero and image of the author^", is dedicated to the author's concept of Korolenko's creative personality, lyrical expression. We use the term "author", meaning by it "a certain view of reality, the expression of which is the entire work" , using Bakhtin's definition. We consider the image of the author in his formation. “History...” covers the period of 1854-1885, that is, the time from the early childhood of the writer until his arrival in Nizhny Novgorod as a thirty-three-year-old man.

the main idea of ​​“The History of My Contemporary”, expressed in paragraph 1.3, concerning the creation of the image of the hero of the era of the 60-80s. XIX century, let us turn to the image of the author presented in the novel.

Korolenko.

In 1905, when Korolenko began work on the novel, he was 53 years old. Naturally, the views of the depicted young man and the mature man do not always coincide. At the beginning of the narrative, monologues, reflections, and lyrical digressions belonging to the author have greater weight; the proportion of incidents that happened directly to the child described is not very large.

In the works of the children's cycle, the specificity lies in a double view of what is happening: from the point of view of the main character or hero-storyteller in childhood and the adult narrator or hero-storyteller, with the adult only balancing the child’s ideas and conclusions and correcting some accents. In the first volume of “The History of My Contemporary”, consisting of five parts, which tell about the early childhood of the writer, about his studies at the boarding school of Mrs. Okrashevskaya, in the Zhytomyr and Rivne gymnasiums, this is the image of the author. The reader perceives the work in two time plans, either transporting to the 50-60s of the 19th century and taking the position of a child, or rising to the author’s point of view on the events that took place then.

Such authorial returns from the events described to his own modern opinion continue throughout the novel. Let us note some of their features. In the first chapters, V. G. Korolenko, by right of seniority, expresses his opinion about the actions and thoughts of the child that the author once was, as a rule, in the form of a statement, explanation, assessment; the form of a maxim, morality, and aphorism is also acceptable. Author's intervention may be in the nature of reporting historical facts, introduced for the purpose of illuminating and

clarification of events that cannot be told by a child - There are also comments in the text from the first person, in which one can feel irony, fatherly mockery of the hero: “How long ago it was” and how stupid I was then... And how much smarter I am now that boy who put his ear to the telegraph poles or was proud of... what? The title of a little boarder... But now I’m already an “old high school student” and I’m going to new places for some new life...” (vol. 5, pp. 144-145).

In the chapters devoted to the description of his student time, the author expresses his attitude towards the actions of the hero differently. Irony is clearly felt in the narrative; it permeates the entire text, sometimes being inseparable from the hero’s own words. Often ironic thoughts are formalized in remarks in the first person: “I have developed an arrogant conviction that I am perhaps the smartest in this city. My standard was this: I can understand all the people flashing in front of me in this stream, swaying like water in a plate, from the barrier to the post office and back.<...>And they have no idea what thoughts about them and what dreams are wandering in my head” (vol. 6, p. 12). The character seems to be talking about his superiority over the people around him, but we can easily identify hidden meaning, put by the author into the hero’s mouth. The author does not hide his thoughts that actually arose in his youth, even if they run counter to his modern beliefs. The author further adds from the height of his life experience: “I was stupid. Subsequently, when I became smarter, I easily found people above me in the most remote corners of life” (vol. 6, p. 12).

Then the picture changes - the difference in views is reduced to a minimum and the proportion of events and actions of the hero increases. To directly address the reader, to express his point of view, Korolenko resorts to digressions in which he speaks about the hero in the third person. In subsequent chapters, the coincidence of the opinions of the hero and the author increases, so the author resorts less and less to irony and characterization of the hero’s actions. The author's digressions now pursue one goal: to make the narrative more coherent by introducing into the text

messages, reviews and generalizations about historical events that did not affect the hero personally, but are important for explaining further events. So, for example, without naming the source of the message, V.G. Korolenko speaks about the Chigirinsky case, about the assassination attempt on Solovyov - the events that occurred while the hero was under arrest in the Lithuanian castle. Thus, we see that the image of the author in “History...” changes and grows along with the writer. The text of the novel reflects the course of memory, the process of recollection, therefore there is a “double view” of what is happening: from the point of view of the hero and from the point of view of the author, although they are essentially the same person in different periods his life.

The second chapter, “The Poetics of the History of My Contemporary,” is devoted to a comprehensive literary analysis of the work. It includes four paragraphs.

In the first paragraph. ""The History of My Contemporary" in the General Typology of Russian Autobiographical Literature." An attempt was made to determine the place of the autobiographical memoir novel in the general typology of Russian autobiographical literature. The problems of the genre nature of autobiographical fiction in modern literary criticism are among the complex and debatable. The main problems that are in the spotlight: the relationship between historical truth and fiction, documentary autobiographical information, the role of the author in the artistic interpretation of the hero’s life and work, and others. These problems are due to the fact that the criteria for the genre and the range of its understanding are very wide. Obviously, the explanation for this must be sought in the synthetic nature of the genre, its constant evolution, and interaction with other literary genres. We are considering “The History of My Contemporary” in comparison with other works of the major autobiographical genre. S. T. Aksakov, A. I. Herzen, L. N. Tolstoy, V. G. Korolenko, I. A. Bunin - all of them in their works talk in detail about the history of their family, about

relatives, about their origin. “The History of My Contemporary” is undoubtedly one of the great works of autobiographical literature. !

The second paragraph is “Genre specificity of “The History of My Contemporary”.” Considering “The History of My Contemporary”; we define the genre of this work as an autobiographical memoir novel. The autobiographical component undoubtedly comes first in “The History of My Contemporary”. The desire for factual accuracy and consistency can be easily seen in the text of the work; this is repeatedly emphasized by the author.

Having studied the history of the genre of Russian artistic biography from hagiographies to modern autobiographical novels, we argue that in the process of its development, autobiography was enriched by the traditions of other genres (in Russia): hagiography, educational novel, historical novel, biography, diary, literary portrait, etc.

We see that from the point of view of genre nature, “The History of My Contemporary” combines the characteristics of several genres, three of which are fundamental: autobiography, that is, a description of the facts of one’s life, memoirs (memoirs) - a description of the “work of the soul,” reflections, reasoning , relationships to surrounding events characteristic of the character being described at a certain period of his life, and a novel, the main feature of which is the absence of prohibitions on the depiction of anything.

In the third paragraph. “Literary portrait as part of the artistic originality of “The History of My Contemporary””, we consider the system of images of the work, the features of their implementation. We support the point of view of V. S. Barakhov, who considers a literary portrait in its three mutually related manifestations: 1) a literary portrait as a means of creating the image of a character in a novel, story, story; 2) literary portrait as component, a component of a more complex genre structure; 3) literary portrait as an independent genre.

In our opinion, all these three types of literary portrait are reflected in Korolenko’s work. We will consider the first two manifestations based on the material of the memoir-novel “The History of My Contemporary”. Directly in the novel, the literary portrait acts, firstly, as an integral part, a component of a more complex genre structure, and, secondly, as a means of creating the image of a character in the novel. We are making an attempt to give a typology of the characters portrayed in “The History of My Contemporary”, highlighting portraits-stories and memories. The main differentiating factor underlying the division of portraits into stories and memories is the passage of time. If in a portrait-story time moves independently of the narrative or stops altogether, then in a memory the passages selected by the writer to characterize the character continue the storyline. Also, regardless of the passage of time, we have singled out type portraits into a separate category. V. G. Korolenko creates galleries of images: officials, judges, teachers, students, exiles, political, folk images: Pochinkovtsy, Glasovtsy, Amgintsy. In our study, we consider literary portraits of the writer’s parents, teachers, some representatives of petty officials, teachers (classifying them into “old”, “maniacs”, “chronographs” and “new”, based on the attitude of the author and borrowing his definitions), as well as teachers of higher educational institutions.

Portrait elements abound in the third book, which is dedicated to exile wanderings and at the same time tells about the places where the author visited exactly then (Berezovsky Pochinki, Vyshnevolotsk political prison, Perm, Tomsk, Krasnoyarsk, Yakutsk, Irkutsk). Thus, we see that “the portrait of a character predominates in chapters whose main goal is to create a picture of the life of a particular group, layer of people (landowners, court workers, teachers). All these paintings are given to us refracted through the prism of the author’s personality, respectively, each of them adds features to the image of a contemporary. ;

We consider it necessary to draw attention to another interesting feature of Korolenko’s narrative. The principle underlying his work in general and “The History of My Contemporary” in particular is the desire to reproduce. events from the point of view of “then perception”. We will talk about the problem of comparing time plans a little lower, but here we will highlight this technique insofar as it is a means of expressing the author’s subjectivity.

“Talking about past years, Korolenko always clearly distinguishes between his current position and the position of his autobiographical hero at this stage of his development. The author's point of view may complement or clarify the point of view of a “contemporary”, but it does not at all replace it. What is remarkable is that Korolenko never tries to hide his “back then” views and beliefs, even if they run counter to his modern thoughts. He can only allow himself to express his point of view about his former self. Describing the first year of study at the Technological Institute, talking about the fact that he had to starve, Korolenko says casually: “In essence, it was a slow death from hunger, only extended over a long time” (vol. 6, p. 90), “ But I was stupid then and didn’t notice it...” The author is not ashamed of even his most ridiculous, ridiculous mistakes and misconceptions, laughing at his susceptibility to literary motives and types. In an effort to find words “that would come closest to the phenomena of life” (vol. 5, p. 295), the “contemporary” even finds a definition for his suit of cheap fabric, sewn for a trip to the capital by a provincial tailor: “Leaving in On the fashion side, I felt dressed to the nines, “quite simply, but tastefully”” (vol. 6, p. 11). The author puts these words in quotation marks, showing that this is the definition chosen by a young man who wants to look good, while despising fashion and not having the means to do so. After a remark from ladies I know about the unsuitability of such a costume for the capital, Korolenko speaks about his feelings: “And I was left with a terrible melancholy of loneliness in my heart and an unpleasant consciousness,

that my “unfashionable, but simple and elegant” costume attracts ironic attention...” (vol. 6, p. 14). The author again puts the description of the costume in quotation marks. Of course, the person who wrote these lines no longer thinks so, and with these quotation marks he emphasizes the difference between himself and this young man, so young and naive.

In the same vein, the author recalls his youthful vivid impressions of being a student, reaching the point of enthusiasm. In “The History of My Contemporary,” a work undoubtedly based on real facts, there are passages that speak of obviously fictitious events. First of all, these are the dreams of the author. So the young man is carried away by his thoughts on a trip on a steam locomotive in the role of a “smart and strong” worker-machinist, seeing a third-year trainee, or experiences temporary admiration for the image of Lazovsky, “the dance class Mephistopheles, who creates scandals with such beautiful carelessness” (vol. 6, p. 63 ). Such passages are characteristic of the hero’s youth.

In the study, we also pay attention to the methods of psychological depiction of heroes using the example of the owner of the proofreading bureau Studensky.

So, the main component of “The History of My Contemporary” is artistic portraits of people who helped the writer form his views and beliefs.

Fourth paragraph. “Features of the chronotope of “The History of My Contemporary”.” In the work we see several types of chronotopes interconnected and flowing into each other. The chronotope of an autobiographical memoir-novel has several components: calendar time (a variety of it is represented as biographical), event time (historical, everyday time, chronotope of the road, meetings), perceptual time (the author's chronotope). We give a brief description of the main types of chronotopes identified by Bakhtin (biographical, evental, historical, author's chronotope, everyday, road chronotope). The biographical chronotope predominates in the work under study. So

As the narrative is about a truly completed past, the author uses the techniques of prospection and retrospection, thus focusing attention on one or another stage of the hero’s life. Thus, V. G. Korolenko’s attention dwells for a long time on the upbringing, early years, and the process of growing up of a “contemporary.”

The flow of biographical time stops, and we become acquainted with both the hero’s reading circle and his friends, thus falling into the spiritual atmosphere of entire generations.

* The hero’s reading range allows the author to more deeply imagine the formation of his worldview and his formation as a person. In “The History of My Contemporary” there is a chapter partially devoted to a work of fiction (“Fomka from Sandomierz” and the landowner Dechert”), in which the author shares his childhood immediate impressions of the first book he read in his life. However, children's perception of the book is clarified by the author's opinion. The essay “My First Acquaintance with Dickens,” supplementing Chapter XXIX of the first book, included by the author in the appendices, has a different chronotope structure. Here, undoubtedly, a lot of attention is paid to books and works of art, but their perception is given almost without stopping time. Perhaps this form was dictated by the specifics of the hero’s reading in that period: the writer’s older brother, trying to separate himself from the younger ones, did not allow Korolenko to read his books, only allowing him to change them in the library. The boy began to read on the go. “This manner gave the reading process itself a peculiar and, so to speak, gambling character” (vol. 5, p. 366). The writer notes that such a superficial reading did not allow him to understand the work in all its versatility, allowing him to note only the main characters and the main storyline. However, such shallow reading did not at all form in the hero a careless attitude towards literary text On the contrary, having received the opportunity to read the books he wants, the hero understands the value of this.

Events can be described as occurring in biographical time, following life events, or they can represent

are retrospectives, memories of events that took place in reality, but at the moment of time described in the text, had already ended. The course of the action, its distribution over time is associated with artistic purpose, set by the author. We have identified some differences in. reflection of the passage of time in “The History of My Contemporary” in passages related to various types of text (narration, description, reasoning). Having analyzed the various chapters of “The History of My Contemporary” from the point of view of the duration of the action in time, we see that the choice of speech means largely depends on the type of text. When choosing one or another means, V. G. Korolenko is guided by his communicative intentions.

In conclusion, the results of the research are summed up, the place of the autobiographical memoir-novel “The History of My Contemporary” by V. G. Korolenko in the history of Russian literature of the 20th century is determined, and ways for further research in this area are outlined.

The main provisions of the dissertation research are reflected in 9 publications of the author:

1. Savelyeva E. S. The concept of man in the work of V. G. Korolenko / E. S. Savelyeva // Epistemology of poetics: artistic semantics and genre syncretism. Intra-university collection of scientific works. Vol. 5. Rostov-on-Don, 2005. pp. 64-70.

2. Savelyeva E. S. Features of the manifestation of author’s subjectivity V. G. Korolenko in the aspect of genre / E. S. Savelyeva // Conceptual problems of literature: artistic cognition. G. Rostov-on-Don, 2006. pp. 198-201.

3. Savelyeva E. S. Portrait-substantive part of the novel-memory of V. G. Korolenko “The History of My Contemporary” and the means of creating an image / E. S. Savelyeva // Epistemology of poetics:

artistic semantics and genre syncretism. Intra-university collection of scientific works. Vol. 6. Rostov-on-Don, 2006. pp. 44-52.

4. Savelyeva E. S. The theme of childhood in the works of A. P. Chekhov and V. G. Korolenko / E. S. Savelyeva // Creativity of A. P. Chekhov. Collection of materials from the International scientific conference(correspondence) - XXIII Chekhov readings in Taganrog. Taganrog, 2007. pp. 28-32.

5. Savelyeva E. S. The concept of man as an expression of historiosophical and aesthetic orientation V. G. Korolenko / E. S. Savelyeva // Historiosophy in Russian literature of the 20th and 19th centuries: traditions and a new view. Materials of the scientific conference - XI Sheshukov readings. Moscow, 2007. pp. 54-58.

6. Savelyeva E. S. Exiled wanderings of V. G. Korolenko - part of the ideological content of “The History of My Contemporary” / E. S. Savelyeva // Conceptual problems of literature: artistic cognition. Rostov-on-Don, 2007. P.274-277.

7. Savelyeva E. S. Features of the reflection of novelistic thinking in “The History of My Contemporary” by V. G. Korolenko / E. S. Savelyeva // Conceptual problems of literature: typology and syncretism of genres. - Rostov-on-Don, 2007. pp. 211-215.

*8. Savelyeva E. S. Psychologism and lyrical expression of images in “The History of My Contemporary” by V. G. Korolenko. Scientific and methodological journal "Bulletin of Kostroma State University named after N. A. Nekrasov." Main issue, No. 1, January-March, 2008. Volume 14). pp. 131-134.

9. Savelyeva E. S. Temporal organization of the autobiographical novel-memoir of V. G. Korolenko “The History of My Contemporary” / E. S. Savelyeva // Epistemology of poetics: artistic semantics and genre syncretism. - Intra-university collection of scientific works. Vol. 8. Rostov-on-Don, 2009. pp. 52-61.

Legend: * indicates work published in a publication recommended by the Higher Attestation Commission of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation for the publication of basic materials of candidate dissertations.

Savelyeva E. S. “The History of My Contemporary” V. G. Korolenko: Artistic Originality: Abstract. day. ...cand. philologist, science: 01/10/01. Rostov n/d.: Southern Federal University, 2009.24 p.

Signed for publication on 05/08/2009. Format 60x84 1/16. Offset printing. Volume 1.5 conventional oven l. Circulation 100 copies. Order Ns fáí.

Publishing and printing department of Rostov State Pedagogical University 344082, Rostov-on-Don, st. B. Sadovaya, 33

Chapter 1 “The History of My Contemporary” in the context of the era

1. Prerequisites for the appearance of “The History of My Contemporary” in the works of V. G. Korolenko: analyticism as a form of thinking of the writer

2. Korolenko’s historiosophical, value paradigm (orientation) in the embodiment of fate, choice, law, human responsibility and the picture of the world

3. The ideological content of “The History of My Contemporary” and its compositional expression in the novel

Chapter 2 Poetics of “The Stories of My Contemporary”

1. “The History of My Contemporary” in the general typology of Russian autobiographical literature

2. Genre specificity of “The History of My Contemporary”

3. Literary portrait as part of the artistic originality of “The History of My Contemporary”

4. Features of the chronotope “Stories of my contemporary”

Introduction of the dissertation 2009, abstract on philology, Savelyeva, Elena Sergeevna

Currently, there is a tendency in the literature to turn to the problems of classical literature. And now, after many years, the works of writers who created the culture of the Russian people, laid the foundations of the modern Russian language, and participated in historical events are worthy of attention. Undoubtedly, one of these writers is Vladimir Galpktionovich Korolenko, a great humanist, fighter for justice and freedom, author of many artistic and journalistic works, in particular, the memoir-novel “The History of My Contemporary.”

Scientists' research in the field of classical works is carried out in two directions: firstly, these are attempts at a new interpretation of texts that have already become textbooks, studied by many generations of scientists, and secondly, the search for new classical works that have not yet received the attention of the spiders. “The History of My Contemporary” by V. G. Korolenko is undoubtedly one of the works that is insufficiently covered in literary criticism.

Relevance of this study. 1) The novel in question, “The History of My Contemporary,” is considered one of the pinnacle creations in Russian literature, but no special research has been carried out on this work. 2) This study allows us to clearly reflect the analysis of the characteristics of the author’s consciousness, the specifics of its manifestation; since, on the one hand, all scientists and researchers recognize the extreme activation of the author’s personality in autobiographical prose, on the other, this problem has rarely become the subject of special consideration. 3) Addressing this novel by V. G. Korolenko as a work with documentary elements allows, by looking into the past and understanding the problems of the past, to understand one’s own time both from the point of view of literary criticism and from the point of view of history.

The novelty of the dissertation. 1. In a dissertation research, the autobiographical novel-memoir “The History of My Contemporary” by V. G. Korolenko is subjected to such a comprehensive study for the first time. 2. Significantly new judgments about the specifics of this work as a kind of genre symbiosis. We define the genre of “Stories of My Contemporary” as an autobiographical memoir novel. 3. In the literary analysis of the work, we presented for the first time a classification of literary portraits of the novel, and made a number of significant conclusions regarding the architectonics of the work, the features of the image of the characters and the specifics of the chronotope.

The theoretical and methodological basis of the dissertation research is the principles of cultural-historical and comparative-historical research methods, as well as the provisions and concepts developed in the works of M. M. Bakhtin, B, O! Kormap, Yu. M. Lotman, D. S. Likhachev, G. O. Vinokura, V. V. Vshknrpdopya, G. I. Pospelova, G. A. Beloy, B. M. Eikhenbaum, Yu. II. Tynyanova, L. Ya. Ginzburg, S. S. Averyitsev, A. G. Tartakovsky, I. A. Nikolina, A. B. Esin, I. O. Shaitanov and others.

The literary categories used are considered historically and theoretically, the history of the formation of the genre of artistic autobiography is traced, attempts are made to analyze the principles of creating images of heroes, to identify artistic means of expressing the author’s position in an autobiographical memoir novel.

When determining the place of “The History of My Contemporary” in the writer’s work, we studied the works of D. P. Ovsyaiko-Kulikovsky (141), I. D. Shakhovskaya (210), A. V. Khrabrovitsky (196), G. A. Byaly (40 ), and also got acquainted with the dissertation research of recent years dedicated to the work of V. G. Korolenko. These are the works of G. Z. Gorbunova (“Korolenko and Dostoevsky” (56)), S. N. Guskov (“V, G, Korolenko and L. N. Tolstoy: the problem of the writer’s ethical position” (63)), Yu. G . Gushchina (“Essay cycle by V. G. Korolenko “In the Hungry Year”: Creative history and genre originality” (64)), N. N. Gushchina (“V. G. Korolenko and literary populism (1870-1880s) )" (65)), D. A* Zavelskaya (“The semantic and artistic unity of the text in the first works of V. G. Korolenko” (79)), I. V. Kochergina (“V. G. Korolenko and literary criticism and journalism late XIX century" (102)), P. E. Lyon ("Literary position of V. G. Korolenko" (109)), L. I. Skreminskaya ("West - East" - the spiritual and creative quest of V. G. Korolenko" (170)), V. R. Tagarinova (“Poetics of stories and essays by V. G* Korolenko” (180)), A. V. Trukhapenko (“Some style features stories and stories by V. G. Korolenko: (Principles of portraiture and coloristics as a means of expressing the author’s idea)” (184)), O. L. Fetiseiko (“The story “The Artist Alymov” and the unrealized plan of V. G. Korolenko “In a quarrel with little brother" (192)).

Having analyzed the focus of these works, we see that the researchers limited themselves to problem-thematic analysis or analysis of the regional specificity of individual works or cycles.

The object of research is the autobiographical novel-memoir “The History of My Contemporary” by V. G. Korolenko.

The novel is recognized as the leading genre of literature in recent centuries. Despite the fact that this genre is the subject of deep thought by writers and attracts the close attention of literary scholars and critics, it still remains a mystery,

Hegel, comparing the novel with the traditional epic, wrote that the novel lacks the “originally poetic state of the world” inherent in the epic; there is a “conflict” between the poetry of the heart and the opposing prose of everyday relationships” and “prosaically ordered reality.” V. G. Belinsky , calling the novel an epic of private life, defined the subject of this genre as follows: “the fate of a private person,” “everyday life,” M. M. Bakhtin expressed similar thoughts in his work “Epic and the Novel (On the Methodology of Researching the Novel)” (19). The scientist claims that “the hero of the novel is shown not as ready-made and unchanging, but as becoming, changing, educated by life,” he “combines both positive and negative traits, both low and high, both funny and serious”, the novel shows “live contact” of a person “with an unprepared, becoming modernity”, “more deeply, significantly, sensitively and quickly” than any other genre, “reflects the formation reality itself."

The genre of the novel arises and strengthens where there is interest in a person who in one way or another differs from the average image of a citizen, who breaks out of the framework and behavioral stereotypes accepted in society.

The synthetic genre nature of the novel is undeniable. This genre incorporates features of many other genres. “War and Peace” by L. N. Tolstoy, “Gone with the Wind” by M. Mitchell, “ Quiet Don» M. A. Sholokhov - in these works, which capture not only the private lives of people, but also the events of the national historical masterpiece, there are features of an epic. Novels can also embody the meanings characteristic of a parable. According to O. A. Sedakova, “in the depths of a Russian novel there usually lies something similar to a parable” (167, 12). It is also impossible to deny the novel’s involvement in the traditions of hagiography - the hagiographic principle is clearly expressed in the works of Dostoevsky and Leskov.

As a genre prone to synthetics, the novel, in contrast to other, less complex genres (short story, essay, tale) that preceded it, operated in various limited areas of comprehension art world, turned out to be able to bring you closer!” literature with life in its diversity and complexity, inconsistency and richness. This genre is capable of not only combining with relaxed freedom the substantive principles of many genres, both serious and humorous, but also transforming their structural properties.

The most important feature of the novel is the author’s close attention to the microenvironment surrounding the characters, in which they act, live, and communicate. Without recreating the microenvironment, it is very difficult for a writer to reveal the inner world of a character. Novels, focused on a person's connections with a reality close to him and, as a rule, giving preference to internal action, have become a kind of center of literature. They seriously influenced all other genres, even transformed them. According to M. M. Bakhtin, the novelization of verbal art has occurred: when the novel comes into literature, other genres are sharply modified, “to a greater or lesser extent Romanized.”

The subject of study is the author, who is also the hero of this work, from the point of view of his role in the artistic organization of the text, the means of expressing the author’s position and creating the image of the main character. And although logic requires us to consider the problem in the “author-hero” order, we first consider the problem of the hero, then the author, leaving the traditional order of concepts in the formulation of the topic.

One of the central problems of social thought, artistic creativity and culture in recent times has become the spiritual formation of man, the changes taking place not only in his life, but also in his soul. Here internal action successfully competes with external action, and the consciousness of the hero in its diversity and complexity, with its endless dynamics and psychological nuances, comes to the fore.

The purpose of the dissertation research is to comprehend the theoretical aspects of the problem of the genre of a work with an autobiographical orientation, to determine the place of “The History of My Contemporary” in the context of the work of V. G. Korolenko and to consider the poetics of the memoir-novel.

To do this, the following tasks must be solved:

1) summarize and systematize literary works on the problems of artistic autobiographical literature;

2) comprehend the theoretical aspects of the stated problem;

3) determine the position of the novel “The History of My Contemporary” in the general typology of Russian autobiographical literature and in the works of V. G. Korolenko;

4) consider the features of the genre of the work being studied;

5) explore the system of images, the features of literary portraits of “The History of My Contemporary”, classify them;

6) study the chronotopic structure of the novel.

The structure of the work is determined by the nature of this dissertation research and is organized in accordance with its purpose and objectives. The dissertation consists of an introduction, two chapters, a conclusion, and a bibliography. When working with texts, we studied two collected works of V. G. Korolenko: in 9 volumes, 1914, and in 10 volumes, 1954. References in the text of the dissertation are based on the later collected works.

Conclusion of scientific work dissertation on the topic ""The History of My Contemporary" V.G. Korolenko: Artistic Originality"

Conclusions on Chapter 2:

1. Generalization, systematization and analysis of literary works on the problem of the genre nature of artistic autobiography give reason to believe that the genre of autobiography at the present stage of its formation is complex, it has the features of confession, chronicle, memoir, and in Russian literature - hagiography, confession and sermon. The main stages in the evolution of the genre: ancient biographies, medieval lives, autobiographies of the Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment, autobiographies of the 19th and 20th centuries. The main elements of the specificity of works of this genre are: 1) documentary (to varying degrees); 2) aesthetic significance; 3) identity of the author and narrator, 4) features of the chronotope (fundamentally retrospective organization of the narrative, the principle of double vision),

5) a focus on recreating the history of individual life, 6) some features of poetics, etc.

2. After considering autobiographical genres, the genre of “Stories of My Contemporary” is defined by us as an autobiographical memoir novel. The synthesis of various genres in the autobiographical prose of V. G. Korolenko, in our opinion, most accurately confirms the stated thesis about the orientation of this author towards the great epic form and novelistic thinking.

3. An important part of “The History of My Contemporary”, which carries a significant semantic and organizing narrative load, are literary portraits that make up a broad, detailed picture of life in Russia in the 60-80s of the 19th century. In our research, we distinguish portraits-histories, portraits-memories and portraits-types. We base the classification on the passage of time in the portrait relative to the main narrative.

4. The chronotope of an autobiographical memoir-novel has several components: calendar time (a variety of it is represented as biographical), event time (historical, everyday time, chronotope of the road, meetings), perceptual time (the author’s chronotope). Having analyzed the various chapters of “The History of My Contemporary” from the point of view of the duration of the action in time, we see that the choice of speech means largely depends on the type of text. When choosing one or another means, V. G. Korolenko is guided by his communicative intentions. He achieves the greatest accuracy of description, expressiveness of narration and clarity of logical reasoning. When describing phenomena and objects in the text, imperfective verbs with the meaning of a repetitive and concrete procedural action predominate (example 1. 1 and 1. 2). A type of text such as a narrative is characterized by the use of perfect verbs with the meaning of instant action (example 2.5), or a process limited in time (2.6), when we're talking about about isolated cases, or imperfective verbs with the meaning of constant, ordinary action (2.2), when we are talking about ordinary and repeated events. In reasoning, the temporal structure depends to the greatest extent on the communicative intentions of the speaker and is subordinate to the general logical structure of the text.

Conclusion

The works of Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko, which have great weight in the Russian literary heritage, depict historical memory Russia, the spiritual creation of its best representatives, the inextricable connection of generations.

The creative heritage of V. G. Korolenko is large and varied - here are rare variations of small genres (pictures, pages, excerpts), and allegorical (fairy tales, legends, fantasies), journalism and works belonging to the genres of documentary and documentary-biographical prose (portraits , letters, memoirs, observations, stories, essays, novellas). However, everywhere - both in journalism and in everyday life - a fiction writer, a prose writer with his own style is visible - in the traditions of the classics, but at the same time sharply modern, propagandistic, oratorical.

The autobiographical memoir-novel “The History of My Contemporary,” which is the pinnacle of the writer’s entire work, is a work of a complex genre that includes most of the above. That is why “The History of My Contemporary” is the final work of V. G. Korolenko.

The History of My Contemporary” occupies a central place in the work of V. G. Korolenko, absorbing everything he wrote before it and illuminating part of the author’s life framed by a wide panorama of the life of society in the 60-80s. XIX century.

At the center of the analyzed work is a creative personality. The fate of an outstanding personality has attracted the attention of writers throughout the history of literature. The artist’s aesthetic and social ideals are embodied in the image of the hero. Ideals are a moving category, developing, like the person himself. The author's personality is an active principle.

In the novel under study, an artistic image of a creative personality is created. Even such traditional methods of creating a hero’s image for biographical narration, such as a biographical element, portrait characteristics, and a system of leitmotifs, make it possible to accurately recreate the image of the hero, and psychological characteristics make it convincing and reliable. The author managed to show the complex interaction between a creative person and the environment through a biographical, cultural and historical context.

Literary portraits are an important part of “The History of My Contemporary.” We are creating a classification that divides the literary portraits of “The History of My Contemporary” into historical portraits, memory portraits and type portraits. We base the classification on the passage of time in the portrait relative to the main narrative.

Artistic time and art space- essential forms of creating the image of a hero. The basis of the plot is part of the hero’s life - from early childhood to his arrival in Nizhny Novgorod. We analyze the various chapters of “The History of My Contemporary” from the point of view of the duration of the action in time and come to the conclusion that the choice of speech means largely depends on the type of text. When choosing one or another means, V. G. Korolenko is guided by his communicative intentions. He achieves the greatest accuracy of description, expressiveness of narration and clarity of logical reasoning.

Nowadays, there is no doubt that it is necessary to turn more often to works of classical literature for many reasons. Many works that have been undeservedly overlooked by literary scholars and the public raise problems that are not alien to modern times. Works with documentary elements help a person, by looking into the past and understanding the problems of past years, to understand his own time. Turning to “The History of My Contemporary” as a work of a major genre allows us to evaluate some trends in the modern literary process. It is also important that the works of the classics are highly ideological, and by reading them, a person increases his cultural level.

Let us outline the range of problems for further research. Firstly, these are questions related to the national idea, very clearly expressed in “The History of My Contemporary.” Secondly, these are the problems of researching a national autobiographical novel written by representatives of different cultures and nations, comparing the works of different authors.

Thus, we assert that “The History of My Contemporary” by V. G. Korolenko, being a highly moral work reflecting the essential features of the past, is modern in ideological orientation and should be present in the reading circle of the modern reader, and is also of interest to researchers of Russian literature turn of XIX-XX centuries.

List of scientific literature Savelyeva, Elena Sergeevna, dissertation on the topic "Russian literature"

1. Averin B.V. Personality and creativity of V.G. Korolenko // Collection. Op.: In 5 volumes. M., 1989. T. 1.S. 5-22.

2. Averin B.V. Novels of V.V. Nabokov in the context of Russian autobiographical prose and poetry: Author's abstract. dis. for the job application Doctoral degrees Philol. Sci. St. Petersburg, 1999. 32 p.

3. Averintsev S.S. Plutarch and ancient biography // Averintsev S.S. image of antiquity. St. Petersburg, 2004. pp. 225-479.

4. Azbukin V.N. Literary-critical activity of Russian writers of the 19th century: Textbook. allowance. Kazan, 1989. 228 p.

5. Allahverdov V. M. Psychology of art. An essay about the secret emotional impact of works of art. St. Petersburg, 2001. 201 p.

6. Andronikov I. L. Collection. cit.: In 3 vols. M., 1980. T. 2. P. 370-378.

7. Andronikova M.I. From prototype to image. On the problem of portraiture in literature and cinema. M., 1974. 200 p.

8. Arefieva I. T. Education of Russian Symbolist writers as a historical