METHODS OF AVANT-GARDE POETICS
IN THE STORY OF V. ZAZUBRIN «PALE TRUTH»

The article explores the techniques of poetics in the story of V. Zazubrin «Pale Truth», created
in 1923. This is the early period of the writer’s work, marked by the proximity to the avantgarde
type of artistry. The story continues the theme of «two worlds». She dedicated to
Zazubrin’s novel of the same name, as well as the story «Sliver». However, the struggle between
the «two worlds», the new and the old, is translated into a narrative into the everyday sphere of the NEP era. The main core of the plot is not a military conflict, but a clash of an uncompromising
hero fighter with a philistine environment. So, on a new thematic material, Zazubrin embodies
the idea of deformation of the ideal image of the Revolution, declared in the «Sliver». New economic
relations in the country opened up the possibility of economic crimes. The victim of such
crimes is the hero appointed by the party to the post of head of a large food office and not recognizing
among his subordinates crooks and thieves. However, despite the tragic fate of the hero,
the Revolution, like in the story «Sliver», in the story retains a halo of holiness. The clash of the
«two worlds» is expressed by the author through techniques of contrasting poetics. In the color
palette of the image of the protagonist Averyanov, the fiery shades of red dominate, symbolizing
his devotion to the revolutionary idea, uncompromising. The author in many ways endowed his
hero with his own character traits. In the depiction of the antihero Latchin there is no color, but
through the poetics of corporeality, the roundness of the movements shows his resourcefulness,
contrasted with the sharp angularity of Averyanov. At the stylistic level, the features of avantgarde
letters are expressed in the story through semantically loaded sound repetitions, the
hyperbolization of metaphors, enumeration, the stringing of homogeneous members, the abundance
of elliptical structures. These poetic characteristics allow us to see in the «Pale Truth» manifestations
of Wortkunst (the term O. A. Hansen-Löve), which is characterized by concentration
on the word, the sound that generates the semantic density of the text. Expression of the narrative
speech serves as one of the ways of expressing the author's position.