The Tradition of the Literary Genre of Confession in the Parish Prose of the 21st Century: The Contexts of "Mentoring" and "Partnership"

The article is devoted to the analysis of the specifics of modern Russian parish prose. It examines a number of substantive and formal features that distinguish this literary phenomenon from close, but not synonymous ones: literature of spiritual realism, Orthodox fiction, spiritual prose, missionary prose. Parish essays and stories of Archpriests Alexander Shantaev, Alexander Dyachenko, Alexy Lisnyak and a book "Unholy Saints" and Other Stories by Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov) are the material for the study. The study shows that "parish prose" is one of the varieties of Orthodox fiction; it includes phenomena of literature which are different in genre and style. Parish prose actualizes issues of metaphysics and axiology in terms of a clear religious and confessional consolidation; it includes elements of autobiography and documentalism, pays attention to detail, tends to an objective reflection of modern rural (parish) realities. Parish prose also has the features of the genre of literary confession, which is reflected in parish stories and short stories. The features are: the change of focus from events to psychologism, the story of the spiritual experience of the narrator, inclusions of elements of prayer and preaching discourses in the texts. The priest is engaged in the liturgical and ceremonial as well as everyday household spheres of the parish world thus constantly going beyond the church space; therefore, he loses the position of the speaker and becomes a listener or a mute witness to what is happening. The weakening or loss of the verbal level of communication does not exclude the deep inner dialogue of the priest with other characters, which is expressed by means of universal formulas in the poetics of literary texts. These formulas are: (a) a conversational turn / monologue and analysis; (b) a conversational turn / monologue and prediction; (с) a conversational turn / monologue and prayer. In the context of "mentoring", in which the image of the priest acquires a student's function and hierarchical relationships are established between the characters, there is a complication of communicative models associated with the retrospection device. In this case, the formulas are: (a) a conversational turn / monologue - protest - reconciliation; (b) a conversational turn / monologue - acceptance - conscious acceptance. The study of the context of "partnership" leads to the conclusion about the weakening of the influence of the traditions of the genre of literary confession on parish stories. This is evidenced by the shift of emphasis from the inner life of the priest to the outer one, the expansion of the event series, the loss of the priest's position of "listener" and "silent contemplator", the verbalization of communication. The previously stated communicative models undergo changes expressed by the formula "a conversational turn / monologue and a conversational turn / monologue".

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