Genre and Thematic Features of Displaying Military Culture in Russian Literature and Cinema of the Early 21st Century

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the specifics of turning to the subject of military culture of the most influential types of art of the 21st century, namely literature and cinema. Military culture herein is defined as a set of socio-cultural values, social practices and works of art related to the implementation of the function of protecting the motherland and the existence of a person in the specific conditions of a military conflict. The purpose of the study is to trace the dynamics of the disclosure of the problems of military culture in the works of Russian military literature and military cinema in the 21st century. To achieve this goal, the following tasks were achieved: 1) to clarify the definition of military culture; 2) to substantiate the identification of artistic military culture as part of a broader definition; 3) to highlight the characteristic features of modern military literature and to show the problems associated with its genre-thematic originality and role in culture; 4) to determine the leading trends in the development of modern military cinema in Russia; 5) to identify common and different approaches to depicting military culture by means of literature and cinema. The novelty of the study lies in the approach to the consideration of military culture as a broad and multifaceted phenomenon, not limited to the intra-army environment and including artistic military culture. As a result, it is concluded and substantiated that there is a relatively more significant penetration into military cinema not only of genre and thematic techniques, but also of the values and meanings of mass culture. Military literature, as this study shows, is less influenced by them today, which allows us to speak not so much about the conservatism of this art form, but rather its greater resistance to the simplification trends. Perhaps, this is due to greater reliance on the original author's vision — as opposed to the set standards of filmmaking.