POETICS OF "CRUEL REALISM" IN RUSSIAN WOMEN'S PROSE OF THE 20TH–21ST CENTURIES

Abstract

The article explores the artistic uniqueness of "cruel realism" within the context of late 20th and early 21st-century Russian women's prose, based on the works of L. Petrushevskaya and her contemporaries. The author analyzes the transformation of realistic discourse amidst the existential and social crisis of the Perestroika era. The subject-object organization of texts, their specific lexico-syntactic structure, and the concept of the "sacrificial" hero as an alternative to destructive reality are examined. The study demonstrates that naturalistic details serve as tools for a profound demythologization of Soviet gender roles and the moral self-diagnosis of society. The research expands scholarly understanding of the evolutionary mechanisms of post-Soviet realism, proving that through the prism of the poetics of "cruel realism," a breakthrough to the sacred, ethical meanings of existence occurs, which determines the humanistic potential of contemporary women's literature.