Abstract

Abstract This paper is devoted to the problem of the evolution of the literary hero and the types of heroes in Russian literature of the XXI century. The admiration of the person being described and the desire to redirect this feeling to the reader make the style of the work of contemporary Russian writer Zakhar Prilepin realistic from the prism of modernity (neorealism). Prilepin sets himself the task of talking about the fate of a person who faces many difficulties in his/her desire to fit in the modern world where human values have transformed beyond recognition from what they were in the literature of the 19th and 20th centuries. Prilepin then gradually moves to comprehend a more global problem: is fitting in even possible in the conditions where absolutely everyone is carrying a bit of hell with oneself? Prilepin seeks to get an answer to this question on a truly epochal, historical scale. This paper also discusses the role of Prilepin in the context of modern Russian literature, aiming to determine the transformation of modern Russian prose based on Prilepin’s works. Prilepin’s views on the formation and development of the literary process in the 21st century explore the peculiarities of the hero and the specifics of the writer’s artistic world. He categorizes the types of heroes as follows: provincial, rebellious, intellectual, and others. The paper, thus, attempts to analyze the main features of the imaginative system in the works of Prilepin in the context of neorealism.