“How do we write”, or the problem of literary self-consciousness

Statement of the problem. The interest of modern literary criticism to the problem of literature reflection is carried out mainly on the material of various metatexts, especially vividly represented in the turn of the century. The purpose of the article is to reveal author’s identity and artistic self-reflection in non-fiction texts. In this regard, the collection of articles entitled “How Do We Write”, compiled in 2018 by St. Petersburg writers Pavel Krusanov and Aleksander Etoev, is of particular interest. This book was written in reply to the book “How Do We Write” in 1930. The literary process of the 1920s, like, in many respects, literature of the new 21st century, was a period of renewal of various types and genres of artistic creativity, a period of the birth of new forms. Research results. Comparison of the two books, in which writers from different literary eras reflect on the nature of creativity, on the technology of literary work, on relationships with a reader, gives grounds to talk about the contours of a new textual criticism of the 21st century. Deformation of the canon, destruction of the boundaries of literature and aesthetic taste, and new forms of communication influenced the content and form of texts. Conclusions. With emergence of Internet reality, new sources of textual criticism appeared. The new literary reality dictates its own laws and creates new conditions for the development of publishing, writing, and reading relationships. Modern literature, like the literature of past years, reacts to cultural and historical events and to the development of the literary process, reflecting on the creation of the text and on the role of a writer here and now.