UDC

Authors

Abstract

The paper examines the death of the house motif in Russian urban prose of the 1960s – 1970s. Using the novels and stories by Yu. Trifonov, B. Yampolsky, A. Bitov and V. Makanin, the author studies the influence of existentialism on the twentieth-century urban prose, in which existential motifs emerge against the emotional background of loneliness, fear, alienation and insecurity of an individual before the machine of power. The problem of finding oneself and of the individual’s perception of the world in a society going through a crisis is seen here as an overall problem of the twentieth-century existentialism. An important role in these works is played by the critical situation, being the main structure-forming element of existential consciousness. This way, the characters of Russian urban prose show their true colours when going through borderline situations of choice, illness or death, and it is through these situations that the theme of moral lapse of man is developed. The author notes that for Yu. Trifonov, A. Bitov, and B. Makanin the motifs of death and destruction of the house are important both in the figurative and literal sense, as destruction of old buildings is compared to family disturbance as a result of lies, adultery and betrayal. Therefore, destruction of the house – the characters’ family home – often accompanied their death. The author of the article views the motif of death of the house and its inhabitants both in its physical and spiritual aspects, linking this motif’s emergence with the historical and sociocultural situation in twentieth-century Russia.

Keywords

References

1. Sharavin A.V. Gorodskaya proza 70–80-kh godov XX veka: dis. ... d-ra filol. nauk [Urban Prose of the 1970s – 1980s: Dr. Philol. Sci. Diss. Abs.]. Bryansk, 2001.
   
2. Zamanskaya V.V. Ekzistentsial’naya traditsiya v russkoy literature XX veka. Dialogi na granitsakh stoletiy [Existential Tradition in Russian Literature of the Twentieth Century. Dialogues at the Turn of the Century]. Moscоw, 2012.