CHINESE MOTIVES IN CONTEMPORARY RUSSIAN UTOPIA AND DYSTOPIA

Potapchuk Elena Yuryevna

The article analyzes the significance of the image of China and the Eastern cultural tradition in the Russian public consciousness using examples of modern Russian alternative historical fiction – Zaichik van Holm's project There Are No Bad People (Eurasian Symphony) and V. O. Bogdanova's novel Pavel Zhang and Other River Creatures. The study aimed to compare ideas about the Eastern cultural tradition in modern Russian utopias and dystopias, which would allow identifying the attitude of public consciousness to the influence of the East, in particular China, on the development of Russian society and the state, reflected in modern Russian literature, long-term cooperation and partnership with which is declared as a strategic direction in the foreign and domestic policy of the Russian Federation in modern conditions. To identify the main meanings and significance of the Eastern cultural tradition in the construction of an alternative Russian reality, structural-semiotic, intertextual, comparative and cultural-historical methods were used. The author of the publication finds that the image of Chinese culture in the public consciousness continues to be constructed on the basis of existing stereotypes, including the “yellow threat” emanating from its eastern neighbors, and the attempts made to overcome socio-cultural patterns and clichés in relation to the East by promoting deep knowledge in the field of oriental studies receive mixed assessments in Russian society.

Keywords:contemporary Russian literature, Russian alternative historical fiction, V. O. Bogdanova's novel Pavel Zhang and Other River Creatures, Holm van Zaychik, the project There Are No Bad People (Eurasian Symphony), the importance of the Eastern cultural tradition in Russian literature