Trzy opowieści o wojnie w Czeczenii. Wojna w kulturze i literaturze

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze the literary picture of the war in Chechnya based on three novels of contemporary Russian authors. The selected the works are: “Pathologies” by Zachar Prilepin, “Asan” by Vladimir Makanin, and “I am a Chechen” by German Sadulaev. The picture of the war will be presented in the context of research at the frontier of cultural anthropology and poetics of a literary text. War – John Keegan writes – is one of the most important cultural phenomena, but often anthropological studies consider it marginal or ignor it. The symbolism of the war was described by Roger Caillois in the text “War and the sacrum”. War is seen in this view as the reality of reversed order, the suspension of cultural norms, as time of offenses, but also the emergence of new, very strong, relationships between people. All of these aspects, as well as many others, can be seen in the literary images of the war in Chechnya. In the texts of contemporary Russian authors, catastrophe of war is inextricably connected with the “mythology” of the brotherhood of arms, and specific glorification of the deep bond formed in a borderline situation.