THE GENRE TRADITION OF THE BILDUNGSROMAN IN THE NOVELS OF THE PROTOCANON OF SOCIALIST REALISM

The article analyzes the protocanon phase of the Russian novel of education on the material of N. Ognev’s “Diary of Kostya Ryabtsev” and A. Gaidar’s “School”. It is established, firstly, that the genre tradition of the novel of education, represented in these texts, embodies the common universal idea of the socialist realist novel – the education of workers in the spirit of socialist realism. Secondly, the markers of socialist realist consciousness, the carriers of which the main characters become, are: a clearly formed position in relation to the bourgeois class, a heightened sense of justice. Thirdly, A. Gaidar’s and N. Ognev’s heroes have not yet arrived at exceptional positivity: the trajectory of transformation of Kostya Ryabtsev and Boris Gorikov is identical – it is the path from spontaneity to consciousness, obedience to the Party. Finally, unlike the characters of socialist realism, whose direction of character development is characterized by a consistent upward upward movement, the trajectory of personality development of A. Gailar’s and N. Ognev’s heroes is a downward movement up to the point of symbolic death. A. Gaidar’s and N. Ognev’s heroes’ personality trajectory is a downward movement up to the point followed by symbolic death. Only after experiencing it, they start an upward movement, get a new chance to find themselves.