Orphanhood motif in novels by L. Ulytskaya: the case of Shurik Korn and Michey Melamid

Statement of the problem. The article is devoted to consideration of a problem of orphanhood in the modern Russian literature on the basis of L.E. Ulitskaya’s novels ‟Sincerely Yours, Shurik” and ‟The Big Green Tent”. The relevance of the study is determined by the increased interest to the work of the writer. The aim of the study is to reveal ethical and spiritual aspects of the problem of orphanhood in the literature of new sentimentalism through the prism of Ulitskaya’s works. An attempt is made to identify ways of realizing the image of an orphan, to denote a fair allocation of it in a special type of hero. Achieving the goal helps to identify intertextual connections and meanings that constitute the ideological and artistic basis of the works. The methodology of the study was comparative, structural-typological and hermeneutical approaches, as well as the method of literary analysis of the novels under study. Research results. The study of the central images in the selected novels allows the author of the article to reconstruct a certain philosophical picture of the world, which served as the basis for the creation of the type of an orphan hero. The article notes that the main character must face difficulties, the result of overcoming which will be either the achievement of psychological maturation of the orphan or the impossibility of his existence. In general, there is a profound connection between the theme of orphanhood in the works of L. Ulitskaya and large-scale social breakdowns at turn of 21st century.