Forms of Christian Axiology in the Russian Literature of the Second Half of the 20th and the Beginning of the 21st Century

Abstract

This article reveals that the destiny of the Christian tradition in censored and non-censored literature in Russia in the 1960-1980s explains the logic of the contemporary literary process. The analysis of the evolution of the prose genre, method, and style of Leonid Borodin and Valentin Rasputin – traditionalists of different types who preserved the Christian orientation of their works at all stages of their creativity – allows us to draw conclusions about the continuity of the Orthodox tradition in Russian literature in the 20^th and 21^st centuries. The immanent regularities of the literary process determined the relationship between the peculiarities of the religious tradition and the poetics of the literary works. The predominant use of the straightforward publicist word is characteristic of non-censored literature; after the 1990s, journalistic genres, in accordance with their internal logic, become an adequate form of maintaining the integrity of society, and works of fiction continue to implicitly embody sacred values. Borodin’s work is characterised by an appeal to such forms of conventionality and genres as fantastic elements, myths, parables, and fairy tales; Rasputin’s prose is marked by an enhanced folklore element, psychology, and reflection. Both writers develop, in different forms, the possibilities of a realistic artistic method with a common axiological basis, illustrating ways of preserving the Christian tradition.