Historical prose of V. Sharov in Russian historical prose of second half of 20 - beginning of 21 centuries

The prose of V. Sharov, a known writer of modern Russian literary process, is considered in the context of the Russian historical realistic prose of the 1920s-1930s and 1960s-1980s, and in the context of the Russian post-modernist alternative and historical prose and alternative and historical fantastic prose of the end of the 20th - beginning of the 21st centuries. The ratio of a historical event and the document describing it in the text and in the system of images can be an aspect of the research that allows finding convergence and divergences of realistic historical prose and Sharov's prose. If realistic historical prose was based on the document, interpreted it, looked for historical truth and possibility of detection of the past in the present, the subsequent post-modernist prose questioned the possibility of extraction of true data from the document on a past event. Sharov's prose combines the two tendencies of realistic and post-modernist discourse. The writer does not deny the value of the document, "voice" of the truth, but assumes existence of the hidden possible documents also valuable for understanding of the development of the story. This is the author's strategy of the writer. As a writer of historical narration Sharov is interested in real living people and their destinies in the historical context, people fond of ideas and trying to implement them. These people leave written and oral evidence that becomes unclaimed documents of the era. Creating fictional destinies of people in real historical events, Sharov builds models of history and perceives as metaphors and parables serving to explain the course of history. The writer looks for options capable to reveal the true ontological sense of history, which he doubts. Sharov's novels (Trace to Trace (1991), Rehearsals (1992), Before and During (1993), How can I not regret... (1995), The Old Little Girl (2000), The Resurrection of Lazarus (2003), Be Like Children (2007)) form a uniform text of the writer about alternatives of the Russian history and therefore are read in the context of post-modernist historical prose. In a structurally post-modernist novel using unrealistic methods of mystification, experiment, hypothesis, grotesque, and irony Sharov continues the attempts of the realistic historical novel to shape the search of historical truth, meanings in history. Through mystification of documents possible thoughts, ideas, destinies of the people who have irrevocably disappeared in the chaotic stream of history are revived. Sharov shows history "privately", continuing the traditions of the Russian realistic prose.

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