Transformation of the concept of “modernity” in Viktor Pelevin's prose

The purpose of the article is to identify the specific features of Viktor Pelevin’s prose in the context of his understanding of the concept of “modernity”. The transformation of this concept has been studied for the thirty years that Pelevin has been writing his books (from the late 1980s to 2021). The main research methods for this paper were the comparison and analysis of modern realities reflected in Pelevin’s works in different periods (namely three of them identified in the article). Special attention is paid to the concept of “modernity” as a complex and contradictory philosophical concept associated with the emergence and circulation of ideas in a single intellectual space, and to its transformation in different Pelevin’s texts. The article shows that over the past quarter century Russian literature for the first time faced great sociocultural challenges of the period (crisis of literary centrism, transformation of the literary space, demands of the new post-Guttenberg era, revision of cultural values, commercialization of literature, new strategies for writing and reading, etc.). Almost all of these challenges are of interest to Pelevin in one way or another and are presented on the pages of his books in a rather controversial way. The rigidity and stability of his creative method give reasons to speak not only about the writer’s evolution, but also about his special manner of “scanning” modernity. The novelty of the research is in identifying the specific characteristics of Pelevin’s reflection and transformation of modernity. The article concludes that Pelevin’s mentioning of modern social realities and ideas, regardless of the period of his writing career, is not a monologue, but rather an artistic dialogue with modernity, which is constantly becoming more complicated and transformed along with rapidly changing reality.