Fiction and non-fiction in the “thirty-year-old” generation (“millennials”) prose

Abstract

Based on the analysis of the texts from contemporary Russian literature, the article investigates one of the features of the “thirty-year-old” generation prose (V. Bogdanova, O. Vasyakina, K. Hepting, K. Kupriyanov, E. Manoilo, V. Pustovaya, B. Khanov, I. Khanipaev, et al.). As an additional source, this research uses “thirty-year-old” writers’ interviews and the results of the comparison of their prose with the texts and manifestos of “new realists”. The purpose of the research is to understand the features characterizing the combination of fiction and non-fiction in the latest Russian prose. The article raises the problem of biographical, non-fictional and fictional boundaries in the “thirty-year-old” generation texts. In particular, it appears necessary to understand how the millennial author’s biography is reflected at the levels of the genre, composition and plot. Special attention is paid to the authentic and psychological aspects in the artistic method of “thirty-year-old” writers who include the elements of a diary, confession and Bildungs-roman in the structure and content of their prose. They also create their own pseudo-memories, an alternative history. The research concludes that the “thirty-year-old” generation prose problems and poetics are influenced by the writer’s biography and personality, as well as the specific period of the time they write in.