Continuation of the classical traditions of the representation “simple people” in the K. Yarmysh’s prison prose

The article considers the system of characters as a channel of literary tradition, evoking familiar texts in the reader’s memory and thereby leading him to a deeper understanding of the meaning of new works. At the same time, it is not necessary to reproduce the system of characters of a classic work with all the elements and details: sometimes it is enough to preserve the “frame” - the essence of the relationship between characters from different social groups. In particular, in the most widely read works on the subject of prison, the relationship of a conditionally “simple” (or “small”) person with a “noble” (educated) or political prisoner is of great importance. Classical Russian literature, adhering to the values of “Christian realism”, is characterized by the construction of the image of a “simple man” as a spiritually valuable hero, equal to the author and reader, despite the objectifying view of other characters on him. In the prison prose of the Soviet period (on the example of A.I. Solzhenitsyn’s works), the degree of subjectivity of such heroes is slightly reduced, but by no means excluded - they still retain their inner “I” free and untouched. It is this feature of the depiction of the interaction of characters, which remains quite relevant, that modern literature picks up in the person of K. Yarmysh. In the novel “Incredible Incidents in the Women’s Cell No. 3”, the main character tends to perceive her cellmates superficially and treat them condescendingly, but this tendency is overcome in the course of the story by the author’s will.