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Abstract:

The paper clarifies the role of myth, myth and poetics in the formation of M. Gorky’s type of artistic thinking. At the same time, the functional aspects of the myth in philosophy, aesthetics and, in part, the writer’s artistic language were concretized. The influence of myth, mythopoetics on M. Gorky is considered in the context of the development of Russian neorealism of the early 20^th century, its artistic-ontological and aesthetic searches. The diverse embodiment of myth in the form of motifs and archetypes in the works of Gorky is revealed. Preference is given to Slavic mythologism, which, due to the conceptual and terminological ambiguity of its interpretation, is often referred to as pagan mythologism. Creatively interpreted by the writer, traditional mythologism made up the originality of the author’s mythologism, the so-called neonatologists. This tendency, which is not often raised in scientific literary works, is regarded as a General property of Russian prose of the late 19^th — early 20^th centuries, but in individual author’s manifestations. The type of Gorky’s artistic thinking is substantiated from the point of view of the problem. Typological similarities and differences between Gorky and his contemporaries are outlined, the view of famous works of literature is updated. The close and fruitful connections of Gorky’s attitude and creativity with the myth revealed in this work allowed us to see completely different than it was commonly believed, the writer’s worldview and aesthetic guidelines, to understand his main aspiration — to answer the eternal questions of existence, the universe. The analysis of this nature seems to have determined the true meaning of a number of works by M. Gorky.

Keywords: Russian neorealism, M. Gorky, mythopoetics, poetics of prose, motive, archetype, symbol.