Analysis of the genre nature of Vasily Rozanov's works against the background of the development of the Internet texts

Abstract

This article is devoted to the analysis of the genre nature of Vasily Rozanov's works against the background of the development of the Internet texts from the point of view of a Chinese Russianist on the material of Rozanov's artistic and philosophical trilogy: “Solitary”, “Fallen Leaves” (boxes first and second), and social networks blogs. Comparative analysis of some Rozanov's genre-forming features with texts of the Internet environment, such as themes, composition, style of speech, image of the author and communicative purpose, demonstrates a number of similarities and diff erences. Description of private life and fleeting moments, fragmentary-associative type of narration, conversational tone, combination of diff erent perception devices, dialogicity of the effect of creation, strong manifestation of the author's “I” and other similarities make Rozanov's genres close to the Internet texts, demonstrating innovation and anticipation of the future by the thinker, who can be called a “blogger before the Internet era”. Nevertheless, the diff erences between the genres of his work and the Internet texts also do exist, and it proves that Rozanov's texts belong to artistic culture, not to the momentary topic of the day. Internet genres are the result of the development of modern technologies and are mainly aimed at self-presentation, discussion of the “I” hypertheme, creativity, self-identifi cation, consolidation and retention of public relations, dissemination of information, etc. Rozanov's trilogy has other grounds. As a supporter of “before Guttenberg” position, he believed that “literature (print) has pinched a person's self-esteem”. He wrote only “for himself ”. So, Rozanov is also an “anti-blogger”, who confessed that “all my literature is somehow ugly”, but remains “my own”. Th e authors argue that one of Rozanov's signifi cant values is that he is an example for modern people who have fallen under the infl uence of material values. He helps them to evaluate their real life, teaching to share the real “I” and describe the instant movement of their soul, and thus have a profound impact on the healthy development of online communication.

Keywords:

artistic and philosophical trilogy, Vasily Rozanov, Internet texts, themes, composition, style of speech, image of the author, communicative purpose