A Writer about a Writer: On the 95th Anniversary of Vasily Shukshin’s Birth

Abstract

Aim. To study the assessment of V. M. Shukshin’s prose by his fellow writers in the aspect of the writer’s artistic ontology. The proposed approach makes it possible to update ideas about the significance of the opinion of a creative person, which is undoubtedly a writer-critic, both for characterizing a character and for assessing the artistic principles of the writer Shukshin as a whole.

Methodology. The author offers an analysis of Zalygin’s article “A Hero in Tarpaulin Boots. On the Works of Vasily Shukshin” (1974), which testifies, firstly, to the careful thoughtfulness and certainty of the layers of Zalygin’s article, and secondly, to the obvious similarity of Zalygin’s and Shukshin’s views on the key issues of literature and their attitude to a writer’s craft. A conclusion is made about the advisability of teaching the skill of a critic who, according to M. Gershenzon, sees the task of a critic not in a personal assessment of a work, but “teaching everyone to read slowly”, so that each reader could see the hidden in the work and perceive the poet’s vision.

Result. The article evaluates the diversity of perspectives of memories of Shukshin’s character, emphasizes the uniqueness and cultural and historical value of his legacy.

Research implications. The author managed to offer a new approach to assessing Shukshin’s work in the critical potential of writers-critics.