The critical research is aimed to review T. Sharova’s monograph «An author and text in social realism system: the nature of aesthetic conformism and the poetics of artistic compromise (based on the material of K. Gordienko’s works)». The attention is paid to the relevance of the book, defined in three aspects. First, the researcher shows one of the possible solutions to the important issue of aesthetic conformism and the poetics of compromise, due to socio-political and historical reasons. Secondly, a successful attempt to explore semantic inversions in the structure of «the patriarch of Ukrainian prose» K. Gordienko’s fiction text, whose work reflects the stages of artistic reorientation and the ways of «reconciliation» with reality, has been made. Third, an interesting approach to substantiation and testing of new mechanisms for the analysis of Soviet discursive practices based on a specific fiction material has been demonstrated. It is proved that sense and value of T. Sharova’s work is that the author focuses not only on historical and fiction issues, but also presents for the first time a number of theoretical issues, such as general markers of the socialist paradigm, «language of cooperation», political regulation of aesthetic norms, etc. Moreover, within the monograph, this aspect is considered both at the level of writer’s individual creative reactions and at the level of fiction writing strategies. The author of the scientific work has characterized the integral components of Ukrainian social realism and generalized the technology of formation and representation in the aesthetic conformism literature. It has been emphasized that the work of K. Gordienko, firstly, illustrates clearly the role of the artist in totalitarian conditions; secondly, it reflects the tragic result of balancing the ethical and aesthetic principles with the imposed Soviet «from above» style; thirdly, it reveals the adaptation practices of the author-creator, sheds light on the logic of both forced and voluntary conformism. In conclusion, T. Sharova’s monograph from a theoretical standpoint as well as historical and literary points of view makes a significant contribution to the study of the history of the twentieth century’s Ukrainian literature. In particular, a complex and ambiguous layer of social realistic literature has been studied.
Olga Dmitrievna Golubeva: to the 100th anniversary of her birth
