Literary Picture of New Russians

Abstract

The paper is divided into two parts. The introductory part discusses the sociological aspect of the term New Russian, which becomes the starting point of the analysis of a specific type of literary characters.The literary picture of the New Russian has evolved in its long history (reaching the Old Russian folklore) as it did not always use to connote negative characteristics. Nowadays the New Russian is exclusively presented as an anti-character, the typical features of whom are inter alia: the absence of clearly defined identity, the specific attitude to money understood as the source of power, an extremely instrumental approach to other people, and disdain for the broadly understood tradition (including family tradition). In Russian literature this type was at the peak of its popularity at the turn of the millennium and since then it has degraded almost exclusively to mere anecdotal characters in readers’ memory.