On relationship between author and text in Russian autobiographical fiction of the late 1920s-1930s and in lieutenants' works

The article focuses on the narrative point of view specific features in Russian autobiographical fiction of the late 1920s-1930s. The problem of relationship between author and text in the above-mentioned works is studied in connection with the aesthetic problem of the relationship between art and life. Considering the particular historical context for Russian (Soviet) autobiographical fiction of the late 1920s-1930s, the author argues that in the first third of the 20th century the ideas of Italian Renaissance humanists, particularly the Renaissance view of man, became relevant again. Changes in the public mind in the late 1920s-1930s are described; shaping of a personality of a new type is discussed. A detailed description of these changes and this personality is given by S.L. Rubinstein in his book The Principles of General Psychology. New content of life allows to explain both the flourishing of documentary literature in the late 1920s-1930s and the literary changes that occurred under its influence: employability of certain narrative modes, specific features of relationship between the author and the text in the studied works. It is shown that in these texts stories are told from the first-person or the limited third-person points of view. A first-person narrator and a third-person limited narrator reflect the author's experience. A connection between narrative events and the author's life, the author's personality is, therefore, a necessary condition for perception of the studied texts. Significant differences between these texts and autobiographical texts that have a similar narrative perspective are discussed. Firstly, facts and events comprehended by the authors are examined. It is shown that a story about one's life turns out to be a story about one's life-work (which is new, important and required by the society), a story about one's struggle, about the epoch. Secondly, specific features of private self-consciousness in the late 1920s-1930s are accentuated. A person felt part of a single whole, of a generation. A narrator, therefore, not only reveals the thoughts and feelings of the character and the author, but also of the generation s/he belongs to. Such private self-consciousness in pure form is evident in pre-war lyrics. It is shown that Russian autobiographical fiction of the late 1920s-1930s, pre-war lyrics may be considered as stylistic models for lieutenants' works to some extent (the word lieutenants is used to name the authors who were growing up in the last few pre-war years and participated in the Great Patriotic War. The Great Patriotic War is the central theme of lieutenants' works). A hypothesis is made that writers of the late 1920s-1930s may be regarded as literary predecessors of lieutenants. The studied texts are compared to similar phenomena in world literature in the post-war years to explicit the specific features of the literary process of the late 1920s-1930s in the USSR.

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