The antihero image: from traditionalism to metaphysical realism

Statement of the problem. The image of the antihero in Russian literature of the second half of the 20th century has changed significantly. In the prose of traditionalism, existential problems come to the fore, while the antihero is revived as a representative of humanity lost in the abyss of history. In many ways overlapping with the existential quest of traditionalism, metaphysical realism explores the genesis and forms of knowledge available to humanity about the whole that lies beyond the empirical but conceivable. Researchers of metaphysical realism pay attention to the authors’ desire to rethink the legacy of the Russian classics, with its predilection for superfluous people, paradoxalists, and little people. This does not take into account the parodic nature of the anti-heroes of metaphysical realism. We consider it expedient to trace this peculiarity in the work of Y. Mamleyev. The purpose of the article is to identify the origins and trace the development of the image of the anti-hero of metaphysical realism, to consider the peculiarities of the poetics of the method on the example of Y. Mamleyev’s prose. Methodology. Historical-cultural and structural-semiotic methods are applied. Research results. At the end of the 20th century, the philosophical searches of literary artists are actualized in the attempt to realize and correct the crisis state of reality and human worldview. As a result, individual creative methods appear at the intersection of philosophy and art. One of such methods is the metaphysical realism of Yuri Mamleyev, which describes both the features of visible, tangible life, and the transcendent reality invisible to a man. The hero of metaphysical realism has all the characteristics of an anti-hero: isolation from the world, proximity to death - “a precipice into nothingness”, painful passivity. The need to express oneself, to describe one’s inner life, determines the form of most of the works - the first-person “anti-confession”. The pathological states of the narrators are the basis for creating the plot of alienation. The idea that consciousness is alien to the material-empirical world explains the choice of a specific position: in the story “The Pit”, the hero’s transition into the void is followed by his reasoning from beyond. The tragic substratum of the narrative is combined with the comic, parodic, which makes it possible to create an image of a hero who is morally terrible but capable of transgression.