TYPOLOGY OF CHARACTERS IN FICTION-DOCUMENTARY PROSE (“ZINC BOYS” BY S.A. ALEKSIEVICH)

Abstract

The article considers the system of characters in the story by S.A. Aleksievich “Zinc Boys”. The object of the study is the text of the story, and the subject of the research is its characters, on whose behalf the narration is being conducted, built on the basis of interviews recorded by the author. The goal is to identify the main types of characters and to establish their role in the construction of the narrative by the author. The study uses cultural-historical, sociological, psychological methods and an ontological approach. Attention is drawn to the structure of the narrative space, in which the “voices” of various characters entered as documentary evidence of the events described in the story, to the way they are related to the hidden voice of the author. It was revealed that the system of characters includes military personnel (soldiers and officers, including women), medical workers (doctors and nurses), relatives of the soldiers killed in Afghanistan (mothers, wives, etc.). Each of the characters is realized in the story as a “voice”, in the first person telling about the events of his life related to the Afghan war. The author’s voice manifests itself in the montage chosen by the writer, the connection of fragments of interviews recorded by her. It is concluded that in the system of characters of the story it is impossible to characterize any of these groups as more important. Each character unlocks a recreable S.A. Aleksievich reality from a special side, which only this hero could see.