"Each person must write the book of one's own life": towards the issue of defining the genre of Vasily Rozanov's works

The article discusses the issue of defining the genre of such works by Vasily Rozanov as «Solitaria» and «Fallen leaves», reveals their closeness to the diary genre, and studies the conditions that contributed to the emergence and development of such auto-documentary literature. The author pays great attention to the genre criteria of a diary, among which she names synchronicity, autocommunication, lack of literary redact, and dating of entries. One of the most important features of Rozanov's works is the combination and interaction in them of two principles - artistic and documentary. «The story of his soul» is intertwined with a narrative about the events of his personal life, his relatives and friends, the realities of his time. In this respect, the books combine several genres: diary, memoirs, and family chronicles. The author concludes that the new genre of Rozanov's works was a reflection of the tendencies that were typical for Russian literature at the turn of the XXth century.