Belles-lettres or mass culture? About one trend in the modern literary process of Buryatia (examplified by Ivan Kalashnikov’s novel "Exiles")

The article deals with the trend of serious attitude of Buryat local publishing houses and popular fiction magazine “Baikal” to "frivolous" genres, which critics consider low and reckon in so-called mass literature. We characterizes this trend on the example of short stories collection “New prose” (2015) and criminal novels by Petr Manannikov (2009-2015). These stories and novels are ranked to belles-lettres and analyzed from the standpoint of its middle position between "high" and "mass culture" strata of contemporary literature. Strong hierarchy position of such fiction is determined by success among readers, and also reputation in literary criticism, publishing and magazine circles. We consider that humanistic and moral pathos of this type of literature is the main reason for its popularity.