Literary portraits of village prose writers in the criticism of the magazine Sibirskiye ogni

The prose of the “village prose” writers occupies a special place in the literary and critical discourse of the Sibirskiye Ogni. Most of the articles devoted to V. Astafiev, V. Shukshin, V. Abramov are literary portraits, which present the critic's view of the life and personality of the author in question. The literary and critical discourse on contemporary traditionalist prose became the object of attention by E. Dobrenko, I. Chekannikova, L. Sokolova, but the question of its reception in “thick” regional publications remains unexplored. The purpose of this article is to analyze the literary portraits presented on the pages of the Sibirskiye Ogni, to reveal a stable complex of motives or image elements embedded in the plot about the writer. The material included articles published in the period from 1986 to 2010. The methodological base is formed by the works of Yu. Govorukhina, M. Berg, representing literary and critical discourse as imperious, in which one of the key tasks of the critic is to convince the reader of the truth of his judgments and to form a certain picture of the world in the addressee. Research results. The main values of the Sibirskiye Ogni discourse are realized in the works of the “village prose” writers: preservation of national and cultural traditions, proclamation of moral principles, interest in the “natural” man, the sacralization of the image of Siberia and the province. The main task of the magazine's critics is to form a positive attitude towards the perception of traditionalist writers of the second half of the 20th century. The basis of literary portraits, as a rule, are the memoirs of contemporaries or the critic himself, as well as letters. In the description of the life path or image of the “village prose” writer, stable dominant elements can be distinguished. This is the motive for overcoming life's difficulties, the predestination of the writer's path, the inextricable connection with the small homeland; the key elements of the image are fortitude, heroism, hard work, exclusivity, and closeness to the people. Village writers often appear as saviors in a situation of global cultural crisis, while their prose is assigned the function of the keeper of national myths and the sacred space of the Russian countryside.