The motif of memory and its transformation in literature of Soviet and post-Soviet reality

Statement of the problem. The predominant appeal of modern writers to the experience of the past leads to a shift in the temporal regime, and the transformation of the discourse of cultural memory has a wide range of author's strategies. The realization of the motif of memory as evidence or reconstruction is reflected in the structure of texts at the level of chronotope, composition, and genre. The purpose of the study is to analyze the ways of transforming the motif of memory on the example of the works of Soviet and post-Soviet literature: M. Bulgakov “The White Guard”, B. Pasternak “Doctor Zhivago”, and E. Vodolazkin “The Aviator”. Research methods are cultural-historical, comparative-typological, motif, narratological, and structural-semiotic analysis of the text. Research results. The moment of a historical turning point as a central event actualizes the emergence of a cultural and historical chronotope, which at the same time is opposed to the chronotope of the house. At the metaphorical level, the traditional mythologems used in the image of a house, city, nature are in constant interaction with the cultural myth, which is reflected in the literary allusion. The conflict of the asymmetry of memory gives way to the conflict between the “remembering man” and oblivion. Conclusions: The literature of the post-Soviet period is at a sufficient distance to work through the traumatic experience; however, it is forced to reconstruct the past on the basis of the evidence that has already been left - to be a “witness of witnesses”. Overcoming the trauma of memory is the leading theme of modern literature.