Vladimir Makanin's short story "Caucasian captive": the transformation of literary dominants of the traditional motive

The short story of Vladimir S. Makanin is compared in a motivational aspect with the works of the classics of the 19th century. Relying on the classical tradition, the writer creates a functional multivalued motive of captivity through metaphorization and partial leveling of the binary opposition „captivity / freedom“. The author of the article notes that in the realistic (Leo Tolstoy) and postrealistic (Vladi-mir Makanin) space the established literary types of the Russian soldier and mountaineers are losing their heroic content while preserving their moral aspect. In the work of V. Makanin there is no heroic pathos of the war that is depicted in the conventional perspective. The motive of beauty in B. Makanins's short story is closely connected with the religious and artistic philosophy of the classics of the 19th century, but it was realized in the new conditions of transitional time. The study of the modification and transformation of the literary dominants of the "Caucasian" motive in contemporary literature makes it possible to reveal new cultural connotations of this topic in the space of historical discourse at the end of the 20th century and to designate the spiritual-existential coordinates that are relevant in any epoch.