The concept of fiction in Soroka’s «Crumbs»

Abstract

In the article, we analyze the concept of fiction in the short story collection «Crumbs» (2019) by the Ukrainian writer Petro Soroka. In this book, the author directly speaks out about his vision of literature; in some tales, he makes digressions, comments on his writing practice and narration, and outlines his understanding of fiction. All these things create a balance between the author’s intentions and concrete texts. In a broad context, the book is a valuable source for researching short stories in modern Ukrainian literature, the nature of fiction in general, and the understanding of fictionality these days. Soroka considered «Crumbs» the pinnacle of his writing. But the book remains unnoticed. The relevance of the article is grounded on this. The aim of the article is to outline and identify the conception of fiction proposed in «Crumbs». For that, we solve two main tasks – analyzing the author’s reflections and tracing the realized and unrealized intentions in concrete works. The central thesis of Soroka is that literature should mirror life. He uses theological reasoning to explain the mirror reflection in fiction (because God creates human fates, he is the best artist, so the goal of literature is not to make-believe but to reflect what God intended). We interpret this thesis and conclude that the author eliminates the main components of fictionality – the make-believe and the filling with meaning. He finds some fictionality in the representation of characters, the depiction of the current time, and the mastery of retelling. But we state that all these fictional components have lost their status because, these days, they are the constituents of nonfictional genres or texts in nonfictional spheres. The only thing that remains when it comes to fiction is the genre. The author names his writings «short stories». So the fictionality of «Crumbs» is a consensus between author and reader about the genre of the book. It arises in a receptive context. Soroka’s short stories are like artifacts that occur because of rethinking subjects in an uncharacteristic, changed context. In this sense, they are contemporary art phenomena. These conclusions about «Crumbs» may become a basis for researching the other writings by Petro Soroka and the short stories of other Ukrainian writers.