FEATURES OF DEPICTION THE SECOND WORLD WAR EVENTS IN THE XXTH CENTURY RUSSIAN, AMERICAN AND HUNGARIAN PROSE (BASED ON THE NOVELS «LIFE AND FATE» BY VASILIY GROSSMAN, «FATELESSNESS» BY IMRE KERTÉSZ, «FROM HERE TO ETERNITY» BY JAMES JONES)

Abstract

The present article deals with the comparative analysis of the methodological bases of depicting the authenticity, features, and character of ideological-thematic reflection of the Second World War events on the pages of the novel by Russian writer Vasily Grossman (1905-1964) «Life and Fate» (1960), the masterpiece by the American novelist James Jones (1921-1977) «From here to eternity» (1953) and the work by the Hungarian novelist Imre Kertész (1929-2016) «Fatelessness» (1975). The novels' authors did not need to interpret historical events by other people's memories and strive for a documentary. The original document in the novels was the life and unique memory of the writers themselves, and not only in the sense of the artistic reproduction of the true sides of the survived and seen, but also in terms of serious thoughts about the relationship of the past with the present in their moral, social, philosophical and ethical aspects. The article highlights the events and circumstances that predetermined the formation of features of the writers' worldview and led to the writing of the novels on military topics. The novels «Life and Fate», «Fatelessness», and «From here to eternity» can be considered as deeply personal works by the writers who have not declared, magnified the events of the history in context, but through the image system of the novels deeply examined, analyzed their roots. The authors of the novels have shown the history of the 20th century not on the background of exaggerated, politically agitating, heroic pictures, but from the point of view of the true significance of historical events for modern society. Keywords: documentary, historical memory, regime, literary tradition, writer’s consciousness, historical concreteness.