“Us” and “them”: character oppositions in M. A. Bulgakov’s plays of the 1920s

The article is dedicated to the study of the system of character oppositions in M. A. Bulgakov’s plays from the 1920s (“The Days of the Turbins”, “Zoyka’s Apartment”, “Flight”), reflecting the tragic collisions of the Civil War era and the post-revolutionary period. The aim of the work is to identify and systematize the main types of oppositions that determine the structure of conflict in the writer’s dramaturgy. Political, social, ethnic, gender, and subjective criteria for the differentiation of characters are analyzed. A multi-faceted model for analyzing the character structure of Bulgakov’s plays is proposed, allowing for the identification of various levels of conflict, realized through the archetype of “us vs. them”. The study establishes that the multidimensionality of conflict is conditioned by a complex system of interconnected oppositions, reflecting the eternal problems of human existence in an era of social upheaval. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the development and application of this model, which allows for a deeper understanding of the ideological and artistic originality of Bulgakov’s dramaturgy and reveals the mechanisms of conflict formation.