Great Patriotic War in Modern Dramatic Discourse

Abstract

The issue of understanding the theme of the Great Patriotic War (1941—1945) by modern Russian playwrights is raised in the article. The novelty of the study is due to the appeal to little-studied plays by the authors of the 21st century. The purpose of the article is to trace the specifics of the author’s individual variants of the artistic representation of the war theme on the material of the works of modern times and to give an idea of the discursive potential of this theme for modern dramaturgy. The evidence base is the analysis of three works written by different playwrights, which present the perception and living of military events and their consequences by a woman, a man and a child. These are the plays “Frontovichka” by A. Baturina, “Seven Trophies of Private Shapkin” by V. Tkachev and “Cannibal” by N. Vorobieva and K. Zhurenkov. The results of the analysis allow us to draw a parallel between eras and show that playwrights, through the prism of war, turn not so much to the past, but to the pressing problems of the present and future. It is concluded that this indicates the key nature of the military theme for modern Russian literature and its enduring significance both for each individual and for humanity as a whole.

Keywords

• russian literature
• modern dramaturgy
• discourse
• theme of the great patriotic war
• a. baturina
• v. tkachev
• n. vorobieva
• k. zhurenkov