ХУДОЖЕСТВЕННАЯ ЛИТЕРАТУРА. ЛИТЕРАТУРОВЕДЕНИЕ

The research is devoted to the problem of transformation in corporal communication between pilot and machine in Russian literature of the 1910-20s. The purpose of this research is to compare conceptual anthropomorphous and technical metaphors of classical and non-classical poetics. This analysis is based on the texts written in the 1910-1920-s and devoted to aviation; the theme selection is explained by the high distinctiveness of the text in the context of the chosen period. The author researches the development of two myths: the future-oriented, futuristic myth, where the human merges with the machine and assimilates with the mechanism; and the past-oriented myth where the assimilation of the machine to a living creature comes to the fore. The second myth is relevant for classic literature (A. Blok, A. Kuprin, L. Andreev and others). This myth perfectly ёts the pre-Soviet, Christian worldview, where soul is more important than mind and Christian images of the space structure (sacred top – sublunar bottom). The futuristic myth created by V. Mayakovsky, V. Khodasevich, V. Kamensky and others, is aimed at desacralization of heaven, highlighting the idea of merge of human and machine and even the idea of replacing human with the machine. Therefore, one may speak of two mythologies as two different worldviews, which appear in literature and culture in such an important and crucial period for Russian culture as the 1910-1920-s.

Marcel Proust’s non-ёction heritage includes several texts that are usually seen as the future novelist’s attempts to formulate his views on the nature of art and to clarify his place in the literary life of the time. This article examines Proust’s most accomplished anti-symbolist manifesto, “Contre l’Obscuritй”, and three fragments describing different aspects of the creative experience. The purpose of this research is to investigate the rhetorical aspects of Proust’s reяection on the creative process and to establish the pragmatics of this sort of writing in the context of the novelist’s formation. While tracing the rhetoric strategies Proust uses to distance himself from the artistic trends of his own generation, the article proposes to read these early drafts not only as a theory of art but also as a manifestation of the author’s doubts and ambitions regarding his literary project. As proved in this article, Proust in his debuts is most original and most modernist not when he is trying to imitate art theorists or critics but when he is touching upon the struggles of a young author (fear to lose inspiration or to be unable to ёnish the major work, problems of ёnding literary identity, relationship with the readers).