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Abstract:

The article provides an overview of the latest Russian prose that addresses the image of the Great Patriotic War. In the modern literary process, the depiction of the Great Patriotic War is not frequent or defining, which forces writers to seek unexpected and unconventional forms of discussing the war that differ fundamentally from the genre and style trends that emerged in the second half of the 20th century and became traditional (heroic-epic, artistic-documentary, and lieutenant-style). The article provides examples of the interpretation of the Great Patriotic War in women’s prose (“Valsarb” by Kh. Pobyarzhina and “Polunoshchnitsa” by N.M. Alekseeva) and in fantasy and fairy-tale narratives: the audio novels “Shadows of the Teutons” by A.V. Ivanov, “Kognata” by A.B. Salnikov, and the parable novella “Vaccination” by E.I. Nekrasova. Female prose is characterized by an emphasis on the personal and emotional interpretation of the Great Patriotic War, which highlights the themes of memory, commemoration of the dead, the responsibility of the living towards them, and the establishment of symbolic connections with the past. In audio novels, the Great Patriotic War is placed in an adventure context like a “chivalric novel”, while also imbued with a deep mystical, axiological, and philosophical meaning characteristic of parable narratives.

Keywords: contemporary russian prose, the Great Patriotic War, audio novel, women’s prose, parable, literary reception.