“DEMONS SWARMED LIKE THIS”: ALIEN IN THE CHILDREN’S FICTION OF YULIA VOZNESENSKAYA

Abstract

The main research question of the article is related to the representation of the category “alien” in the novels by Julia Voznesenskaya (1945–2015) written between 2002 and 2007: “Cassandra’s Way or Adventures with Macaroni”, “Julianna and the Game of Kidnapping”, “Julianna and Dangerous Games”, and “Julianna and the Game of ‘Stepmother and Daughter’”. These books represent a sample of Orthodox acute fiction for children and teenagers that emerged in the post-Soviet period. The article briefly characterises the context of the emergence of Voznesenskaya’s children’s prose, examines the specificity of artistic techniques and genre uniqueness. The author of the article notes that despite the fact that these works are certified by Voznesenskaya herself as “Christian” or “Orthodox fantasy,” they are devoid of the genre-forming features of fantasy, they use only certain techniques characteristic of the genre. The main attention is paid to the analysis of the image of the spatial and subjective opposition of “us” and “strangers”. The “alien” in the analyzed works coincides with the image of the enemy, there is no way for him to turn into “ours” and dialogue with him is impossible. To create the image of the “alien” Voznesenskaya uses an artistic detail marking the disgusting, false and malicious.

Keywords: children’s literature, orthodox fiction, Yulia Voznesenskaya, dystopia, orthodox fantasy, Julianna, Cassandra