ARTISTIC STRATEGIES OF YEVGENY KHARITONOV’S AND EDUARD LIMONOV’S AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL PROSE

The article presents a comparative analysis of the artistic strategies employed by Yevgeny Kharitonovand Eduard Limonov in depicting the autobiographical heroes of their prose during the early stages of their writingcareers. The relevance and originality of this study stem from the limited exploration of this topic and the overall insufficient examination of these authors’ bodies of works. The focus of the analysis is on the central characters in Kharitonov’scollection Under House Arrest (1969–1981) and Limonov’s key novels It’s Me, Eddie (1976) and The Diary ofa Loser, or the Secret Notebook (1979), all of which possess a distinctly autobiographical nature. Through a comparativeexamination of the protagonists and the ways in which they are portrayed, the study identifi es notable similarities inhow both authors refl ect the existential confl ict faced by the Russian intelligentsia in the 1970s. This confl ict is closelytied to the portrayal of a marginal hero who identifi es as a “Russian writer”, navigating the challenges of emigration (in Limonov’s case) or forced creative isolation (in Kharitonov’s case). The analysis also reveals the dynamics of changes in the form of the authors’ autobiographical texts.