Metamorphoses of Memory in the Play by Nikolai Rudkovsky “Дожить до премьеры” (“Live to See the Premiere”)

Abstract

At the beginning of the 21st century, the societies of the post-Soviet countries are still faced with the problem of determining its position in relation to the Soviet past and self-identification of national identity. The popularity of the nostalgic narrative about the lost socialist world order, actively supported by official propaganda in some countries, led to a paradoxical metamorphosis – the project of the future socialist society has become a symbol of conservative values and a glorious heroic past. Since the beginning of the 40s of the 20th century in the literature of the medium memory a mythologizing vision of the Second World War has become subjected. The subject of the article is the analysis of the drama of contemporary Belarusian writer Nikolai Rudkovsky “Дожить до премьеры” (“Live to See the Premiere”). Exploring the theme of war, the playwriter shows the evolution of the perception of a memorable event: from the high rank of a historical fact to the experience of an individual, doomed to operate in a warlike reality. The playwriter interprets collective memory and the Soviet, Russian and Belarusian literary canon in reference to various types of metatexts corresponding to the theme of war.