Review of the monograph “The image of the hero of our time in the prose of the turn of the 20th-21st centuries” / Еd. by N.V. Kovtun; Krasnoyarsk State Pedagogical University named after V.P. Astafyev. Moscow: Flinta; Krasnoyarsk, 2022. 260 p.

The review examines the analysis of the image of contemporary hero in Russian prose at the turn of the 20th-21st centuries. The purpose of the review is to draw attention of the scientific community to the basic problem of the philological discourse of the 21st century connected with the analysis of the image of contemporary hero in their main literary roles: from the “patriarchal hero” to the trickster. The research methodology is connected with the structure of the collective monograph, in which the authors focus on the problem of hero-centricity in three main methodological aspects. First, it is the search for a new hero of the time in the context of socio-historical paradigm of the cultural hero and their main modifications. Secondly, the study of the main vectors of psychologism in representation of this hero. Thirdly, the study of multilateral relations between the author and the hero in the literary situation at the turn of the 20th-21st centuries. The research results are determined by the solution in each part of the collective monograph of an important scientific problem related to the phenomenon of hero-centricity. The research of the authors of the first part of the monograph “Social Hero: Recognition of Conflicts and Transformation of Types” (N. Kovtun, Ya. Soldatkina, E. Shevchukova, L. Gavrilova, M. Larina, T. Poluektova) consolidates the search for the contemporary cultural hero in relation to the problem of genesis of modern hero-centricity in its genre and cultural-historical aspects, as well as access to the comparative- historical and national description of characters, including the axiological potential of artifacts acting as a catalyst for the historical memory of generations. The second part of the collective monograph “Vectors of Psychologism: The principles of the Image of a Hero and the Conceptuality of the Form” (O. Turysheva, A. Zadorina, M. Lopacheva, Yu. Domansky, L. Sinyakova, T. Zagidulina, and O. Glushenkov) is devoted to the study of multilateral principles of the image of a contemporary hero, including aesthetic, visual, subcultural, psychological and philosophical aspects. The third part of the scientific study “Hero- Author Relationships: Psychological and Aesthetic Reflection” (I. Plekhanova, E. Bukhanova, A. Kulyapin, D. Gromov, D. Ledneva) analyzes various forms of reflection, including autoreflection, concerning the hero -author relationship in the texts of Russian prose of the second half of the 20th-21st centuries (“naive” prose, A. Bitov, V. Popov, A. Ivanov, M. Paley). Conclusions. The collective monograph presents the whole variety of characters in modern Russian literature, considered both in diachronic and synchronous aspects. The analysis of the hero-centricity of the literary process made it possible to verify and outline the prospects for further study of the main problems of philology, including the duality of cultural world images and the utopian field of modern Russian literature.