in Modern Postcolonial Russian Prose
The article examines the role of the opposition of “one’s own” and “someone else’s” in modern Russian prose – in V. Rasputin’s novel “Ivan’s Daughter, Ivan’s Mother” (2003), A. Volos’ novels “Khurramabad” (2000), V. Medvedev’s “Zahhok” (2017) and V. Galaktionova’s
“On the Island of Buyan” (2003). The actualization of this opposition is due to the traumatic
effect of the post-Soviet reality both in Russia and on the national outskirts of the former
USSR. The article also clarifies the features of the post-colonial situation for the post-Soviet
world and uses the metaphor of colonization proposed by Habermas. In particular, the destruction of the social environment familiar to the characters under the onslaught of the “alien” has become one of the most noticeable plot-forming factors of modern prose. The xeno-
phobia of Rasputin and Galaktionova extends not so much to other nations, but to everything
“alien”, including foreign discursive practices, new things, and the totality of the Lebenswelt
surrounding the protagonists. The characters of Rasputin’s story overcome alienation and self-alienation, undergo a crisis of “their” common world and “their” personal one. The village of
Buyan, which is similar to an island in Galaktionova’s novel, is portrayed as a unique archaic
place where only «friends» who do not accept “strangers” live. It preserves the communal id-
yll and traditional austerity of morals. Postcolonial novels about the civil war in Tajikistan are
united by the motifs of loss of the motherland for the Russian natives of the country who are
forced to leave for Russia which is foreign for them (“Khurramabad”) or to flee to an even
more hostile location – a rural village (“Zahhok”). However, the Tajik characters are also divided into “friends” and “strangers”. The hybrid ethnic and cultural identity of the characters
that lies between “their own” and “alien” (the Russian and Tajik worlds respectively) is inherent to several of the most important characters of both novels and it creates a dangerous conflict for them. The resolution of conflicts and collisions in both novels is the characters’ attempt to migrate to a new space which leads to an increase in alienation.
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