Andrei Platonov in search of the genre

The article studies the problem of genre in the literary works of A. Platonov. The viewpoint on the author's manner of thinking as “genre busting” that is very popular in Platonov Studies is argued here. The article analyzes the main genres of his creative work: verses, a publicistic and literary-critical article, a story, a short novel, a novel, a play, a script, a fairy tale. The diversity of genres used by the author represents a certain way of self-expression chosen by the author strategically. As it is shown in the article, because of the problems with censorship A. Platonov modified the same ideas trying to introduce them in different genres for the purpose of applying to his readers. In the artistic heritage of A. Platonov it is possible to detect a genre system that allows us to outline the periods of his creative work, according to his genre preferences at a particular point in time. Genre diversity in the presence of a certain range of recurrent ideas confirms the viewpoint of the writer's works as one text.