The term “miniature” first appeared in Russia in 1925. Thanks to their small form, grace and careful execution, many works began to be called miniatures.
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Types of miniatures
Short stories, laconic in volume, but extremely capacious in content, are called literary miniatures. Often in miniatures there is practically no action, but there is only a sketch, a picture. But, using the capacity of images, comparisons, epithets, the author creates an entire human destiny in a few phrases. The miniature genre began to develop a long time ago, but its clear boundaries have not yet been identified. A miniature is understood as a short story, essay, story or story that is highly “compressed”. The term is essentially still arbitrary. Miniatures in prose are often called “pictures” or “scenes”. The miniature can be lyrical (poetic). In dramaturgy, a miniature was a monodrama and a one-act or multi-act play, the performance of which occupied only part of the theatrical evening.
Specific signs
Having no clear boundaries, the miniature gives freedom to the authors, and this is one of its main differences from other small prose genres, and also allows you to address various aspects of life and put everyday, social, and philosophical issues at the center. The small volume of the work (5-10 pages) helps to avoid repetition, while the idea is clearly visible: the miniature is characterized by a clear transmission of any author’s intention. The moment recorded by the author in miniature most corresponds to the veracity of the depiction of existence, art material is presented subjectively, and the author is most often the narrator.
How specific signs miniatures stand out: small text size; mandatory presence of a plot beginning; clear author's meaning; subjectivism; clear and vibrant dynamics; a clearly defined task; fundamentally equally accepted and global problem and a private question; the organization of the text necessarily includes completeness and proportionality; Symbolism and allegory are allowed; the miniature is one in its nature and indivisible; its form is graceful, rhythmic and melodic (desirable); lyricism and epic interact in miniature.
Yu.B. Orlitsky characterizes miniature as a genre with a pronounced rhythmic organization.
In the works of the miniature genre, a clearly expressed subjective principle runs through everything. In most miniatures it is the subject, i.e. a specific personality represents the center around which all actions take place and the composition develops; subjective perception, a certain experience, is realized in them.
However, there are miniatures with a clearly defined plot, in which the mood that permeates the work carries significant meaning. They often use a “hidden plot”, when external intrigue recedes into the background and change takes on a dominant role. psychological state hero, his moral self-knowledge.
The miniature is distinguished by its brevity, clarity and refinement of the plot, and a special semantic load that is embedded in some words and details.
An internal monologue can freely exist in miniatures simultaneously with a figurative and logical series. At the same time, the author may be interested in philosophical and ethical problems, which, despite their small volume, can be revealed in the genre of miniatures, while the works contain high degree artistry.
Subjectivism distinguishes a miniature from a simple essay, although some miniatures are written in an essayistic form, however, the essay genre presupposes somewhat greater rigor and logic in reasoning and argumentation, and a fairly developed chain of conclusions.
Such a broad and somewhat contradictory definition of the genre is explained by the fact that miniatures allow authors to experiment and express themselves. The absence of rigid frameworks and established canons is the main difference between miniatures and other small prose genres.
The genre began to actively develop in the 90s of the twentieth century. Yu. Orlitsky notes following features modern prose miniature: a miniature can be narrative, lyrical, dramatic, essayistic, philosophical, and humorous, and not just lyrical, as it was before, and these qualities can form a certain synthesis. In modern Russian literature, this is most often “the poet’s prose”; this is evidenced by the refusal of titles (as in lyrics) and the publication of miniatures as part of poetry books and magazine collections of poems. The stanza of the miniature gradually changed - the tendency towards one equal sentence.
Thus, in the process of its development, the miniature genre actively interacted with other small genres (short story, short story, essay), as a result of which the above-mentioned genre varieties, so sometimes it’s difficult to distinguish between what is actually a miniature and what is short story, novella or essay.
The miniature genre is still being formed, and therefore is not recognized as canonical by many researchers.
The emergence of the genre in Russia
It is believed that this genre was first introduced in Russia by Turgenev (“Poems in Prose”). But similar analogies can be found in Batyushkov, Zhukovsky, Teplyakov, Somov, Glinka, who, with his works in 1826, showed 25 prose miniatures for the first time in Russia (“Experiments in allegories, or allegorical descriptions, in verse and prose”).
At the turn of the century and during silver age in literature the genre was especially popular, but in Soviet time found himself in the shadows. Interest in it began to return only in the 70s of the twentieth century.
Authors
IN late XIX- at the beginning of the 20th century, Bunin, Sluchevsky and Turgenev created their works in the genre of miniatures.
In general, at the beginning of the twentieth century, not a single magazine could do without prose miniatures; they were written by many authors, for example, Solovyova,
Aesthetics of the pop genre
Rubber.
Performed:
4th year student 423 groups
Boboshko Margarita
Checked by: Professor
Andrachnikov S.G.
Moscow 2012.
Introduction
Rubber was initially considered a circus genre, but has long since found its niche on the stage. Let's figure out what makes this genre so attractive that it can exist outside the arena. According to scientific information, this genre is called contortion. English word contortion denotes flexibility in all its forms. It was from him that the name contortion came, which characterizes an amazing and truly stunning performing art. This original genre of stagecraft is based on unique abilities a person to transform his body: fold in half, twist into rings, bend in a bizarre way.
"Rubber" - (English caoutchouc) as a circus term is found in specialized literature only at the very end of the last century. One must think that its emergence is associated with the flourishing of the automotive and aviation industries, which required tires huge amount rubber. The thick, viscous sap of rubber plants became the most profitable of the colonial goods. The word "rubber" has become fashionable. Apparently because of the properties of this material, people who have perfect flexibility in their body began to be called this.
The history of the genre.
The earliest information about him dates back to very, very distant times.
IN ancient Egypt During the feasts of the Theban nobles and priests, acrobats performed, along with harpists and dancers with famous gladiators and hunters. Based on the drawings in the tombs, one can recreate a picture of the performance of acrobats of the past. It started with the fact that long board a string of swords was strengthened with their tips up. To show how sharp swords are, the acrobat threw an apple onto the tip of the sword. The halves of the cut apple were then presented to the public as a highly valued treat. The ancient monuments that have survived to this day - reliefs and wall paintings - contain various images of “bridges” - the main pose of the “rubber”.
Demonstration of body flexibility, like dance and pantomime, can be considered one of the sources of stage art, the forefather of all circus genres.
How did this type of acrobatics originate? There is no exact information on this matter. It seems that its beginnings go back to those distant times when ritual dances were performed in pagan temples. It is possible that during such a dance around the flame of the sacrificial fire, one of the priestesses leaned back deeply in ecstasy, beautifully arching her back in a pose that could attract with its unusualness and provoke imitation.
The flexible, trained human body, seemingly devoid of a bone base (which is why artists performing in this genre were advertised as “people without bones”), has always attracted attention. This, in fact, is the reason why the genre turned out to be so tenacious and has passed through centuries without fading to this day. IN ancient Rome on the amphoras we can see colorful images of flexible acrobats, here is a skilled artist, standing on her hands and abruptly arching her back, began to carefully move along the board, and not just move, not at a step, but with “front bridges,” or, as they say in professional circles, “stand with the bogen”, while trying not to touch the dangerous obstacle - the swords.
If it was traditional for Roman acrobats to demonstrate flexibility over the edges of swords, for the ancient Greeks - on a shield held in the hands of an athlete, then Chinese artists thousands of years ago they introduced an original style of plastic acrobatics that spread throughout the earth. Standing on a bench painted with national ornaments, the acrobat smoothly tilted his body back, sinking lower and lower, and now his head and shoulders passed behind his feet. But this is only the beginning, the main thing was that the acrobat had to bend in such a way as to lift the scarlet poppy flower from the carpet without the help of his hands and mouth. This climb, a slow, tense climb, in which the extraordinary elasticity of the body is expressively intertwined with the easily discernible strength of the legs, still looks with exciting interest.
The rooms were built somewhat differently, but also in their own nationally distinctive manner. Uzbek artists, flexible teenagers-muallaqchi. With a copper basin filled with water, the muallakchi walked around the spectators, who, as had been the custom since ancient times, threw coins into the basin. And although everyone knew well what would happen next, this nevertheless did not in the least affect close attention, with which hundreds of eyes watched all the preparations, how, having placed the basin on the ground, the muallakchi (most often they acted together with their teacher in twos or threes) began to make “bridges”, “wheels”, “rolls with elbows to feet." But this is just a “warm-up”. Then the main thing began - the most prepared of the muallakchi, standing with his back to the basin, trying it on again and again, lowered himself onto the “bridge”, plunged his face into the water and managed to remove the coin from the bottom with his eyes for centuries.
"Fantasy" - view fantastic literature, or literature about the extraordinary, based on a plot assumption of an irrational nature. This assumption has no logical motivation in the text, suggesting the existence of facts and phenomena that, unlike science fiction, cannot be rationally explained."
“In the most general case, fantasy is a work where the fantastic element is incompatible with the scientific picture of the world.”
"Fantasy is a description of worlds like ours, worlds with magic working in them, worlds with a clear boundary between Darkness and Light. These worlds can be some kind of variation of the Earth in the distant past, the distant future, an alternative present, as well as parallel worlds existing without connection with the Earth."
A number of researchers are inclined to define fantasy as a type literary fairy tale. "By external parameters Fantasy is a type of fantastic fairy tale." Writer E. Gevorkyan calls fantasy a "fairy-tale phantasmagoria of imaginary worlds."
“Fairy tale. This genre differs from science fiction in the absence of moral teaching and attempts at messianism. From the traditional fairy tale - in the absence of division into good and bad,” says Nik Perumov’s article.
J.R.R. Tolkien, in his essay “On Fairy Tales,” discusses the role of fantasy in the creation of wonderful secondary worlds. Tolkien extols fantasy, like the Romantics early XIX V. But, unlike them, the writer considers fantasy not an irrational, but a rational activity. In his opinion, the author of a work of fiction must consciously strive to establish an orientation towards reality. It is necessary to give the fictional internal “logic of the real,” starting with the fact that the author himself must believe in the existence of Fairy (in tune with fantasy), “a secondary world based on the mythological imagination.” Another trend is defining fantasy through myth. This is quite natural, since fantastic literature always has a mythological basis.
“This genre arose on the basis of the authors’ rethinking of the traditional mythological and folklore heritage. And in the best examples of this genre one can find a number of parallels between the author’s fiction and the mythological and ritual ideas that formed its basis.”
“The world of fantasy is ancient myths, legends, tales passed through modern consciousness and revived by the will of the author.” The most clear definition of fantasy is offered by the reference book “Russian Fantasy of the 20th Century in Names and Persons”: “Fantasy is a kind of fusion of fairy tales, science fiction and adventure novels into a single (“parallel”, “secondary”) artistic reality with a tendency to recreate, rethink the mythical archetype and form a new world within its borders.
Fiction presupposes the content of an element of the extraordinary, i.e. a narrative about what does not happen, did not exist and cannot exist. The main meaning of the terms fantasy and fantastic is a special way of displaying reality in forms that are unusual for it. Features of science fiction: 1) the premise of the extraordinary, i.e. a plot-shaping assumption about the reality of extraordinary events; 2) motivation for the extraordinary; 3) a form of expression of the extraordinary.
Fantasy is secondary to imagination, it is a product of imagination, it changes the appearance of reality, reflected in consciousness. In this case, we are also talking about a subjective beginning, a kind of substitution. The modern understanding of fantasy is also based on the teachings of K.G. Jung, and then fantasy is the self-image of the unconscious; fantasy is most active when the intensity of the conscious decreases, as a result the barrier of the unconscious is broken.
Fantasy is a concept used to designate a category of works of art that depict phenomena that are distinctly different from the phenomena of reality. The imagery of fantastic literature is characterized by a high degree of convention, which can manifest itself in violation of logic, accepted patterns, natural proportions and forms of what is depicted. The basis of any work of fiction is the opposition “real - fantastic”. The main feature of the poetics of the fantastic is the so-called “doubling” of reality, achieved either through the creation of another reality, completely different from the actual reality, or through the formation of “two worlds”, which consists in the parallel coexistence of the real and unreal worlds. There are such types of fiction as explicit and implicit.
The origins of the fantastic lie in the mythopoetic consciousness of humanity. The era of the heyday of the fantastic is traditionally considered to be romanticism and neo-romanticism. Fantasy gives rise to a special character in works of art that are directly opposed to realism. Fiction does not recreate reality in its laws and foundations, but freely violates them; it forms its unity and integrity not by analogy with how it happens in the real world. By its nature, the pattern of the fantastic world is completely different from the pattern of reality. Science fiction creatively reproduces not reality, but dreams and daydreams in all the uniqueness of their qualities. This is the essential basis of fantasy or its pure form.
There are three types of fantasy works. Works of fiction of the first type - completely detached from reality - are pure dreams, in which no direct consideration of the real reasons or reasons for them is given. Fantastic works of the second type, in which a secret basis for everyday phenomena is given, are dreams when we directly perceive real reasons for wonderful images and events or, in general, their connection with reality, i.e. when in the dream itself we contemplate not only fantastic pictures, but also the real causative agents of them or, in general, elements of the real world directly related to them - and the real turns out to be subordinate to the fantastic. Finally, fantastic works of the third type, in which we directly contemplate not the real causative agents or companions of mysterious phenomena, but precisely their real consequences. These are those sleepy states when, in the first moments of awakening, while still in the power of sleepy visions, we see them introduced one way or another into the real world - descended into waking life. All three types of fiction are equally common in works of art, but they are not equivalent.
The fantasy genre is a type of fantastic literature. In terms of volume of publications and popularity among the average reader, fantasy has left all other areas of science fiction far behind. Among all literary movements It is fantasy that is developing most rapidly, exploring new territories and attracting more and more readers.
Fantasy as a technique has been known to art since time immemorial. Actually, to one degree or another it is inherent in any type of art. In literature it passed very well long haul: from primitive myth to fairy tale, from fairy tales and legends - to the literature of the Middle Ages, and then romanticism. Finally, in modern literature It's the turn of science fiction and fantasy. These genres developed in parallel, sometimes touching in some way.
The question of the relationship between science fiction and fantasy has not yet been resolved. On the one hand, both are united in the same concept of “science fiction” and are perceived as its modifications. On the other hand, fantasy is clearly opposed to the literature that is conventionally designated by the term “science fiction.”
Just like a historian, a writer can recreate the appearance and events of the past, although artistic reproduction of them, of course, differs from scientific reproduction. The author, based on historical data, also includes creative fiction in his works - he depicts what could have been, and not just what actually happened.
The best works representing the historical genre have not only aesthetic value, but also historical and educational value. Fiction can portray a bygone era in its entirety, reveal ideology, social activities, psyche, life in living images. Historical and everyday genres are closely related, since everyday life is part of history. Let us consider the history of the formation of historical genres in literature.
Historical Adventures
Not every work that describes past events seeks to recreate them as they really were. Sometimes this is just material for colorful paintings, a sharp plot, a special flavor - exotic, sublime, etc. This characterizes historical adventures (for example, the works of A. Dumas “Ascanio”, “Erminia”, “Black”, “The Count of Monte Cristo”, “The Corsican Brothers” and others). Their main task is to create an entertaining story.
The emergence of the historical genre
It began to take shape at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries. At this time, a historical novel is being created - special genre, which sets itself the goal of directly depicting the life of past eras. It (like the historical drama that appeared later) is fundamentally different from the works dedicated to events previous eras. Fictional historical literature begins to take shape in connection with a significant turning point in historical knowledge, that is, the process of its formation as a science. It is thanks to this that these types of genres appear.
The first authors who worked in new genres
The first writer who began to create works on subjects that interest us is W. Scott. Before this, J. Goethe and F. Schiller, the greats, made their contribution to the development of literature. In the work of the former, historical drama is represented by the works “Egmont” (1788) and “Götz von Berlichingen” (1773). The second created “Wallenstein” (1798-1799), “William Tell” in 1804, as well as “Mary Stuart” in 1801. However, the real milestone was the work of Walter Scott, who is considered the founder of the genre historical novel.
He owns a whole series of works depicting the period of the Crusades ("Richard the Lionheart", "Ivanhoe", "Robert, Count of Paris"), as well as the time of the formation of national monarchies in Europe ("Quentin Dorward"), in England ("Woodstock" , “The Puritans”), the collapse of the clan system in Scotland (“Rob Roy”, “Waverley”), etc. For the first time in his works, the reconstruction of the past by the writer’s pen is based on the study of historical sources (while formerly an artist mainly limited to reproducing the general course of events and the most characteristic features of past figures). The work of this writer influenced the further development that the different kinds genres.
Many classic writers turn to historical themes. These include V. Hugo, who wrote various books. Historical novels created by this author - "Cromwell", "Ninety-third", "Cathedral Notre Dame of Paris" and others.
A. de Vigny (“Saint-Mars”), Manzoni, who created “The Betrothed” in 1827, as well as F. Cooper, M. Zagoskin, I. Lazhechnikov and others were interested in this topic.
Features of works created by romantics
The historical genre, represented by the works of the romantics, does not always have historical value. This is hampered by the subjective interpretation of events and the replacement of actual social conflicts the fight between good and evil. Most often, the main characters of novels are only the embodiment of the writer’s ideal (for example, Esmeralda in Hugo’s work), and not specific historical types. The political beliefs of the creator also play a role. Thus, A. de Vigny, who sympathized with the aristocracy, made the representative of the so-called feudal front the program hero of his work.
Realistic direction
But one should not evaluate the merits of these works by the degree of historical accuracy. For example, Hugo's novels have enormous emotional power. However important stage V further development in the literature of the 19th century, the historical genre was associated with the victory of realistic principles in it. Realistic works began to depict social characters, the role of the people in the historical process, and insight into the difficult process of struggle between the various forces involved in it. These aesthetic moments were largely prepared by the school of Walter Scott (Mérimée's "Jacquerie", Balzac's "Chouans"). The historical genre in a realistic refraction in Russia won a victory in the work of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin ("The Blackamoor of Peter the Great", "Boris Godunov", "The Captain's Daughter").
Deepening psychological analysis
In the 19th century, in the 30s and 40s, deepening in works became new psychological analysis(for example, the image of Waterloo in the work The pinnacle of the historical genre in the 19th century is the epic “War and Peace” by L. N. Tolstoy. In this work, historicism is manifested in the creation of various historical types, a large-scale awareness of the course of history, as well as in the accurate transmission of everyday, social, linguistic, psychological and ideological features of the depicted time.
Historical genre in the mid-19th century
In the middle of the 19th century, after numerous achievements of the realistic school, the most outstanding of which, based on historical material, raised questions about the fate of the nation and folk life, there is a regression in the further development of historical fiction. This is mainly due to the general tendency of bourgeois ideology towards increased reactionism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as an increasingly strong departure from the historicism of social thought. The authors of various historical novels modernize history. For example, A. France, in his work “The Gods Thirst,” written in 1912, dedicated to the period french revolution, conveys the idea that humanity is marking time in its development.
The so-called symbolic literature sometimes claiming deep understanding historical process, but in reality creating only subjectivist constructions that have a mystical character. The following examples can be given: the work “Beatrice’s Bedspread” created in 1901 by A. Schnitzler; in 1908, Merezhkovsky created “Paul I” and “Alexander I”.
Historical genre in the East
In some countries of Eastern Europe On the contrary, at this time the historical genre acquired great social significance and significance. This is due to the fact that in this period the liberation struggle. Sometimes historical literature takes on romantic character. For example, in the works of the Polish novelist: “The Flood”, “With Fire and Sword”, “Camo is Coming”, “Pan Volodyevsky”, “The Crusaders”.
In many countries of the East, the national liberation movement was the basis for the formation of the historical novel. In India, for example, its creator is B.C. Chottopadhyay.
Development of the genre after the October Revolution
In after October revolution a new round of development of the historical realistic novel begins. It allowed Western realists to write a number of works that are outstanding examples of historical fiction. Turning to the past was associated with the need to protect traditions and cultural heritage, with speeches against fascists by humanist writers. For example, this is T. Mann's story "Lotte in Weimar", written in 1939, and numerous novels by Feuchtwanger. These works, distinguished by their democratic, humanistic orientation and closely connected with modernity, are characterized at the same time by the author’s painstaking work on various historical sources. But even in them sometimes there is an imprint of concepts characteristic of historical bourgeois science. For example, Feuchtwanger sometimes has an idea of the progress of history as a struggle between inertia and reason; he also underestimates the role of the people, and sometimes subjectivism appears.
Socialist realism
WITH socialist realism connected new stage, which enters historical genre in literature. His philosophy argued that historical existence is the collective creativity of the people, therefore literature at that time had all the conditions for development, based on the principles of historicism. Along this path, she achieved outstanding results. The most important themes were the depiction of significant, turning-point eras. Characteristic of historical literature of that time was the desire for great generalizations and epicness. As an example, we can cite the novel by A. N. Tolstoy, which depicts the image of this ruler, but at the same time tells about the fate of the people of our country during a critical period of development.
The most important topics Soviet literature was the struggle against the monarchy, the fate of advanced culture in Tsarist Russia, as well as the period of preparation for the revolution and a description of it itself. TO historical literature largely belongs to the work “The Life of Klim Samgin” created by M. Gorky, M. A Sholokhov - “ Quiet Don", A.N. Tolstoy - "Walking through torment" and others.
Today, the historical detective story is becoming very popular - a genre represented in the works of Boris Akunin, Umberto Eco, Agatha Christie, Alexander Bushkov and other authors.
Definitions of the genre of the story. Short story and novella, their relationship.
B.V. Tomashevsky: “A short story (short story) is a work with a simple plot,<…>with a short chain of changing situations or, rather, with one central change of situations (Tomashevsky B.V. Poetics).
G.N. Pospelov: “The story is a small epic genre form fiction- small in terms of the volume of life phenomena depicted, and hence in terms of the volume of text, prose work. <...>There is another type of small prose genre- short story. Apparently, it would be more correct to understand the story as a small prose form in general and to distinguish among stories works of the essay (descriptive-narrative) type and the short story (conflict-narrative) type" (Pospelov G.N. Story // Literary Encyclopedic Dictionary).
Yu. Nagibin: “The story is one-line, it has one dramatic knot, one conflict” (Nagibin Yu. Not someone else’s craft).
V.P. Skobelev: “A story (short story) is an intensive type of organization of artistic time and space, presupposing a centripetal concentration of action, during which a test is carried out, testing the hero or any significant phenomenon in general with the help of one or several homogeneous situations. So the reader's attention is reduced to the decisive moments in life actor or phenomena in general. Hence the concentration of plot-compositional unity, the one-dimensionality of the speech style and the small (against the background of the novel and story) volume as a result of this concentration” (Skobelev V.P. Poetics of the Story).
The history of the genre. The appearance of the first works with the subtitle “story” in the mid-1820s and the consolidation of this definition for narrative works small form from the mid-1840s (see in detail about the history of the genre and term in the works of E. Shubin, A.V. Luzhanovsky, etc.). Active development of small prose genres in the mid-1840s. The connection between the emergence of the genre and its development with the history of realism in Russian literature. “Belkin’s Tales” by A.S. Pushkin and “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka” by N.V. Gogol as important point in the history of Russian short story. The great role of I.S. Turgenev’s “Notes of a Hunter” in the formation of the genre (see the article by V.G. Belinsky “A Look at Russian Literature of 1847,” where the author wrote that the story, which had long existed in literature as the “younger brother” of the story, received the right to an independent genre).
The story in the works of L.N. Tolstoy, A.P. Chekhov, I.A. Bunin and others. The genre was widespread in the literature of the Silver Age. The fate of the story and the metamorphoses of this genre in the literature of the 20th – early 21st centuries.
Topic 2. E. Zamyatin – short story writer.
E. Zamyatin as one of the brightest representatives of small epic genre in literature of the 20th century, a talented experimental writer. Autobiography of a writer. Polytechnic education and its role in the life and work of E. Zamyatin. Passion for the ideas of socialism and direct participation in revolutionary events in Russia.
E. Zamyatin’s appeal to the short story genre at the beginning of the twentieth century. The motif of district Rus' is the main one in his work. The satirical nature of creativity, traditions of N.V. Gogol, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, N.S. Leskov. The northern theme in the writer’s works (stories “Africa”, “North”, “Yola”).
A business trip to England in 1916 and its role in the life and work of E. Zamyatin. Criticism of English bourgeois society and Western rationalism in the spirit of O. Spengler (story “The Fisher of Men”). Passion for modernism.
E. Zamyatin and the revolution of 1917. Educational practice, participation in many cultural projects Soviet Russia. Theoretical works by E. Zamyatin on neorealism and expressionism (“About synthetism”, “I’m afraid”, “New Russian prose”, “On literature, revolution, entropy and other things”). The main thing in the style: emphasized rationalism, geometry of form, distortion of the image, the use of the grotesque, tragic irony: “synthetic image in symbolism, synthesized everyday life, synthesis of fiction and everyday life, experience of artistic and philosophical synthesis” (“New Russian Prose”).
The embodiment of the basic principles of new poetics in his short stories (“Cave”, “Rus”, “Dragon”, “Mamai”, “The Story of the Most Important Thing”, “Yola”, etc.). Interest in science fiction. The influence of H. Wells and A. France on the work of E. Zamyatin. Latest literature about Zamyatin.