Reader’s Revolt against the Book in Vs. Benigsen’s Novel GenAcide

This paper explores the origin and occurrence in modern literature of the motif of the hero-reader’s revolt against the book, from late traditionalism to postmodernism. Special attention is paid to Benigsen’s novel GenAcide, which demonstrates the changes associated with the dogma of literaturocentrism in Russian culture at the turn of the twenty-first century. The article aims to demonstrate the specific relationship between the reader and the book. On the one hand, illusions about living according to what is written have been shattered. On the other hand, the book becomes an instrument of communication and understanding of the Other. Literature itself can play the role of the Other. The reader’s interactions with the Other are frequently influenced by the literary response to the contemporary aesthetic theory, which determines the type of protagonist — a professional philologist (librarian, writer, interpreter). The novel GenAcide depicts an experiment in the introduction of book knowledge and its tragic consequences at the plot level (riot, death, fire in the library). The action is illuminated by the plots of Russian classics, the images of the characters are correlated with the figures of writers (from A. Pushkin, N. Gogol, L. Tolstoy to A. Chekhov and M. Gorky) and famous literary characters (the key position is taken by the image of Chichikov), which opens the prospect of multiple interpretations. The study utilises the comparative-historical method and a comprehensive descriptive analysis of the text. The analysis concludes that forcibly introducing literature into existence does not harmonise it at all. Russian history does not move along the path of humanistic comprehension of the Other but is marked by a Platonic version of history — a pit or a rut, as demonstrated by the logic of GenAcide. The novel, which began with the project of cosmicising the world through the efforts of a man who reads, finishes with a picture of ashes. History is going backwards, the signs of the book riot and the details of its investigation are disappearing, and the books that survived after the auto-da-fe are being taken home by the inhabitants, which promises the repetition of another existential circle, closed in on itself.