Autobiography as a literary genre: essences, varieties and modern modifications

In this article the autobiography is regarded as a literary genre, which entered the literary process in the late 18th and the early 19th centuries. Mixedness, artistry and subjectivity are described as the most important structural components of autobiography, and its three main varieties are interpreted accordingly: autobiography, which is combined with the author's documents; autobiography, which is associated with artistic genres; and autofiction. The special attention is paid to researching into the autobiographical modifications that are observed in the modern Russian literature. The mixture of autobiography with documentary genres, romantic narrative of a writer and philologist about one's own life, perceptions of the generation's dirty histories as one's own - these are the problems that are analyzed in depth.