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Abstract:

М. Prishvin's "Sovereign's Road," V. Rasputin's "Farewell to Мatera," and R. Senchins' "Flooding Zone" reflect different historical, social, and individual authors' readings of a meta-plot about flooding associated with human activity. This meta-plot demonstrates the historical movement of Russian life in the 20^thcentury - from the construction of utopia to the realization of universal disintegration. М. Prishvin outlines the path of unity of people and nature as a condition for reality and future transformation. The story of V. Rasputin embodies the idea that the loss of memory and the reduction of conscience call into question a person's aspiration to a grandiose technocratic future. In the "Flooding Zone" of R. Senchin, the future for the characters is ephemeral, since one cannot be sure even of tomorrow. The article confirms the dynamics of the meta- plot development through the analysis of the artistic image of the child presented in each of these works. With the difference in the self-expression of the characters (Prishvin's Zuek shares the truth revealed to him, Kolka in "Farewell to Мatera" is mute, and Nikita in Senchin's novel repeats other people's words), all three images correlate with Christian symbolism and construct the plot of christening (Zuek), revival (Kolka), Easter (Nikita).