«US» AND «THEM» DICHOTOMY IN THE MODERN CAUCASIAN AND URALIAN TEXTS

Abstract

The given article deals with modern Russian prose in the context of geopoetics. Subject being analyzed is "us" and "them" opposition as the factor that shapes characters' geopoetical and geopolitical system of views, structures geographic and artistic space of the text as well as its ideological and aesthetic meaning. Relying on considerable academic experience of "local text" research in Russian literature studies and other humanities, the authors refer to the contemporary texts (Russian prose of the latest years) and show the way classical "us"/"they" ("others") paradigm has changed as compared to the literary works of 20th and 21st centuries that are precedent for "typical" Caucasian and Uralian texts. Classical Caucasian text, which is founded on romantic view of the world and which was formed by A. S. Pushkin, M. Y. Lermontov, L. N. Tolstoy, A. A. Marlinsky etc. as a set of certain aesthetic constants, demonstrates their persistence in the late 20th -early 21st centuries. Being simultaneously a place of exile and a place of freedom, it implies referring to certain images and situations (mountains, beauty, danger, cunning, captivity, love to a local beautiful woman, clash of cultures etc.). It remains relevant for V. Makanin's, M. Akhmedova's etc. texts that were written both "outside" and "inside" the Caucasian imagery paradigm. Modern Uralian text (A. Ivanov, O. Slavnikova, A. Matveeva etc.), which had later developed in the Russian literature and has generally kept within a realistic, though "exotic" paradigm, is characterized by other types of conflict and different "us"/"them" dialectics, that are coming from the idea of border between worlds and the ways it is passed/transformed inside and outside the character.