Prose miniatures as an experience of self-identification (author's mini-texts in the Vepsian language)

Abstract

Prose miniatures of Alexander Ulyanov are analyzed not only as a way of self-expression of the author's ego, but also as an experience of self-identification, awareness of their place in the social world order and historical time. The format of the miniature cycle appears as a convenient form of reproducing key moments of a person's life, which corresponds to the mechanism of memories as processing pop-up engrams of episodic memory into a complete self-reflection. At the same time, focusing on a particular idea unfolds in a specific situation in life. The creative principle of the author of miniatures serves the pragmatics of social adaptation in the surrounding stressful world. It is creativity that turns out to be a tool for assembling the personality in its multiple forms and serves as a way of integration into a heterogeneous external environment. The mechanisms of constructing miniatures in the perspective of achieving self-reliance and integration into the surrounding world are considered. Namely, the thematic diversity, the author's initial data representing a «fluid identity» typical for a person of the twentieth century with the help of a cumulative attitude to «collecting stones» are successfully overcome in the choice of a reflective style of description and the absence of hasty subjective conclusions. The core of self-identification of the series of miniatures by A. S. Ulyanov translates to the reader dignity, self-confidence and readiness for any tests.