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The article aims to outline the role of literary periodicals in the social system of literature from a perspective of processes that take part in the accumulation of both cultural capital and social capital. In this sense, the paper is an attempt to incorporate a sociological perspective into the theory of literature in order to provide a more informed view on social and cultural processes that are mediated by literary periodicals of diversified kind. By referring to the notions of embodied and institutional cultural capital (Pierre Bourdieu) as well as social capital (Robert D. Putnam, Francis Fukuyama), the paper examines the dialectic of system reproduction and morphogenetic change in terms of processes that organize the functioning of literature conceived of a specific kind of social system.

This paper examines Russia’s “next” generation and its expressions of anti-consu- merist protest, which stem from a fascination with the american beat Generation. Criticism of the consumerist lifestyle prompts the protagonists of bogatyreva’s prose to seek an alternative, especially through hitchhiking, which provides the opportunity to become closer to oneself and others. Communion with nature and a turn towards Eastern Mysticism become important elements of these new styles of existence. The nature of the rebellion of the “next” generation is primarily psy- chological, with an emphasis on expanding one’s own awareness, as well as social, underpinned by the dream of creating a society based on anti-capitalist ideals.

Tis article is devoted to the study of the prose of Olga Breininger and to the observations within her writing which touch contemporary society, especially as regards the concept of “the generation”. Te paper enumerates the main features of the “generation of the 2000s”, emphasizing the importance of analysing the creative perception of the phenomenon of pain, not only as portrayed by Breininger, but also in the works of other writers of this younger generation.

The aim of this article is to analyze of Zachar Prilepin’s political beliefs from postcolonial theory point of view. Author of this paper concentrated on Prilepin’s press articles, his notes on the blog and essays and tried reconstruct Prilepin’s attitude to modern Russian political and economy situation. Russian writer has very often criticized Russian liberal and democratic community for their narration about “western way” as the best for Russian state and nation. Prilepin thinks that the “Western World” try to transform Russia to their subaltern and Russian democratic-liberal part of society are played main role in this process.

Vasily Grossman is one of the most prominent and interesting writers of Soviet era. His journalist papers on II war period, and later on his major literary work, novel Life and Fate made his name famous among the best writers of Russian culture. When his famous Life and Fate novel was seized in 1960 by KGB (Grossman himself was never arrested by the Soviet authorities) his literary career broke for that moment. As a moral compensation Grossman got a special translation work in Armenia, which he managed to put into a special prose called An Armenian Sketchbook. Grossman writes up soviet Armenia with poetical instruments that we are able to analyze through geopoetics and socrealism. Some parts of Grossman’s Armenian Sketchbook, though, could also be understood by postcolonial interpretation.

The paper delineates the history of Rachel Boymvol — a poetess, and an author of aphorisms, fables both for children and adults, and a compendium concerning Yiddish idiomatics. Her life — from the fascination with communism in the 1930s to facing persecutions in 1940s and 1950s, and emigration to Israel in 1971 — is one of the many fates of Russian writers of Jewish descent. Previously a noteworthy fabulist, published in millions of volumes, this later forgotten author is slowly regaining her place within Russian literature after 2000.

In this paper the views of Zinaida Gippius on the status, place and role of the Jews in history, expressed in the diaries, journalistic writing and essays were analysed. A reading of these texts leads to the conclusion that the writer had an ambivalent attitude to the Jews. On the one hand, her position, especially soon after the Bolshevik revolution, corresponding to negative stereotypes, but on the other hand overcome it. The journalistic writing and Gippius’ diaries comes belief in the need for reconciliation and in the possibility of achieving it. The hope for a harmonious coexistence of people connects Gippius with religious movements in Russia, the revival of the Orthodox Church and the opening of the Jews to Christianity.