About the authors:
Maria V. Mikhailova, DSc in Philology, Honored Professor, 1) Professor of the Department of the History of Modern Russian Literature and Modern Literary Process of Philological Faculty, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Leninskie gory 1/51, 119991 Moscow, Russia; Leading Research Fellow, 2) A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya 25 a, 121069 Moscow, Russia.
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8193-6588
E-mail:
Anastasia V. Nazarova, PhD in Philology, Senior Lecturer, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Leninskie Gory, 1, building 51, 119991 Moscow, Russia.
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3579-861X
E-mail:
Abstract:
The study analyzes the images of journalists in the works of Russian writers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the realities of their professional life and the place they occupied in pre-revolutionary society also. Although members of the press most often act as secondary characters in the prose and drama of M. Gorky, A.I. Kuprin, E.N. Chirikov and other authors, their actions have a significant impact on the development of the plot and the fate of the central characters. The “power” of the press over public consciousness is often evaluated negatively, but the journalist’s figure can be described in tragic tones in terms of how it is perceived by these writers. The journalist is shown as a person who bears all the hardships of forced labor, depends on money and bears the cost of a bohemian lifestyle.