Features of the chronotope in memoirs (based on Valeriy’s Shevchuk collection “At the shore of time. Those, who are nearby: Memoirs of Contemporaries”)

Abstract

In the course of writing the survey and studying the problem of the chronotope in the memoir collection by Valeriy Shevchuk “At the shore of time. Those, who are nearby: Memoirs of Contemporaries”, the nature of memoirs as a component of documentary literature was comprehended. The peculiarities of the chronotope from an angle on the composition of the collection, the specifics of the genre, the object of the image in memoirs, the author’s position were revealed and analyzed, and subject, that was investigated, is interpreted in context of paradigm with culturological, historical and literary approaches.It is established that it is the chronotope (according to M. Bakhtin) that helps to reveal the “spirit and concept of time”, “time of culture” in memoirs (M. Kogan) through worldviews and cultural values and positions of the generation, social sentiments, the system of images, we can defy the memoir as an internal and external dialogue between the author and the characters, author and reader, author and him or herself, author and era, author and future. The specifics of memoirs from the point of view of cultural communication are outlined, as well as social memory of the generation of the sixties and dissidents and their dialogue with modern consciousness.Thus, in V. Shevchuk’s memoirs there is a combination of several times, several generations of writers, cultural figures, critics, readers. The memoirist pays especial attention to readers first of all of younger generation, which has no idea of the historical vicissitudes of the time, so the author handles cultural dialogue with the generation and even represents imaginary future in memoirs, what is not inherent. The past and present time of the author and staff gives an idea not only about personalities, but also documents the literary process of the 1960s and 1970-1980 in Ukraine and the era as a whole, the cultural rise. Here individual time and space are intertwined with the public, the general. With retrospectives the author combines several time intervals: author’s, individual and public space. Retrospective also becomes plot and compositional outline of the text. The means of reproduction of time and space are not only facts, documents, descriptions, but also a system of images, even an artistic reproduction of the time image is presented.