Social mythology in I.A. Bunin’s book “Cursed days”

The article examines the forms of the presence of social mythology in the book of artistic journalism by I.A. Bunin “Cursed days”. Social mythology can be understood as a register of social illusions that are deliberately spread in society to achieve certain goals. Myth as a whole cannot be eliminated from human life, and its numerous social modifications come to the fore during unstable stages of world history. Arranged in the form of a diary, “Cursed Days” reflect the revolutionary events of 1918 in Moscow, and 1919 in Odessa, perceived by I.A. Bunin as a national catastrophe. The writer uses specific examples to show that the manipulation of the revolutionary masses occurs due to the actualization in the minds of the people of the mythical archetypes of “enemy”, “hero”, “snake fighter”, “trickster” and others. The world divided into “us” (counter-revolutionaries) and “strangers” (revolutionaries) in the work of I.A. Bunin appears as a mythical binary opposition “golden age” (Past) and “damned days” (Present). Bunin emphasizes the leading role of language in the creation of social myths, when the descriptive and logical word was turned into a magical word. The author shows how some words (“revolution”, “bourgeoisie”, “capital”, etc.) in the new language become mythologems, undergo a semantic shift, and become saturated with feeling and even violent emotions. “Cursed Days” presents I.A. Bunin’s story about history, in which social mythology occupies one of the leading places.