A Person Before a Choice (About V. Bykov's Story "Opencast Mine")

Abstract

The mechanisms of self-determination of a man and a woman in a situation of testing peace by war are considered on a material of V.Bykov's story "Opencast mine" and its others «front stories». Observations over women's images, archetypes of slavic culture, orthodox symbolics allow to reveal the originality of an existential choice of the heroes which makes Bykov's stories truly philosophical prose which is concentrated to universal spiritual characteristics of human life.

Keywords

• "front stories", an image of a woman in military prose, the philosophical existential literature, traditions of slavic folklore in the literature, christian images, v. bykov's work