Game poetics in prose by V. Aksenov and B. Ekimov

Statement of the problem. The variety of approaches to the definition of literary play does not negate the main thing - the dependence of the writer’s strategies on the artistic and aesthetic system to which they belong. It is relevant to compare the game principles of artists representing the realistic and modernist traditions. The purpose of the article is to analyze the strategies of the embodiment of game poetics in the prose of V. Aksenov and B. Ekimov. Methodology (material and methods). Intertextual and structural-systemic methods were used in the paper. Research results. It is established that in the prose of V. Aksenov and B. Ekimov, the game performs unequal functions. The modernist strategies of the former were realized in an attempt to create a second, allegorical, reality profaning the first reality. In B. Ekimov’s story, the game is designed to replace what is missing in life, to complete the crumbling reality.