Deconstruction of Pushkin mythologeme in the Russian postmodernist text of the late 20th – early 21st century

In Russian cultural consciousness, the mythologem "classic" is associated with quite a number of names. In the candidates for the title of "classic" list, A.S. Pushkin is the undisputed leader. The transformation of Pushkin’s personality into a legend began during his lifetime. By the end of the 20th century, the Pushkin myth contained such components as duel, genius, father, humanist, deity, hero, spiritual leader, Russia, and others. The Pushkin myth continues to be cultivated in such postmodernist works as V.S. Makanin’s "The Underground, or the Hero of Our Time" and A.V. Korolev’s "Man-Tongue". Being close to the author main characters of these novels consider Pushkin to be an exemplary personality. They correlate their actions with his life events. However, Russian postmodern writers are more actively engaged in demythologization of the Pushkin myth appealing to images, carriers of mass consciousness. For this, they use a rich arsenal of ludic poetics techniques. Thus, D.A. Prigov and T.N. Tolstaya parody the socialist realism discourse to profane the Soviet version of the Pushkin myth. V.O. Pelevin and O.A. Bogayev grotesquely give material form to the writer’s image, revealing the simulative nature of Pushkin as one of the central Russian culture concepts. L.S. Petrushevskaya simplifies and reduces contextual representations of the classics through intertextual play with Pushkin's quotations. While deconstructing the Pushkin myth, modern authors declare rejection of the totality idea embedded in it. They also reject the formula "Our Everything" which deifies the writer and is firmly established in Russian cultural consciousness.

modern Russian literature, postmodernism, the Pushkin myth, the mythologeme, the image, the motif