«Новый реализм» «нулевых» – вариант Захара Прилепина

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to present main motifs and major themes of Zakhar Prilepin’s literary production. Prilepin, Russian contemporary writer, literary critic, essayist, a theorist and prominent representative of a new literary phenomenon of the beginning of the 21st century, conventionally called “new realism”, is known for politically engaged novels and stories that carry strong emotions. The following Prilepin’s texts are analysed in this paper: two novels – The Pathologies, Sankya and selected stories from two collections of stories – Sin and Shoes Filled with Hot Vodka. We focused our attention on the way of creating main characters of two above-mentioned novels. Prilepin’s first book, The Pathologies, about an immature and frightened member of the special services serving in Chechnya, draws on Prilepin’s own experiences in Chechnya in the 1990s. Prilepin’s next book, Sankya, portrays a contemporary “revolutionist”, a young man involved in radical political opposition.