The writer and the power: Strategies of identity construction in the volume of documentary prose "Me and the world" by Alexei Marinat

Abstract

The author proposes to approach the identity of the character in the volume Me and the world by Alexei Marinat from the perspective of the construction and reconstruction of the self in relation to the totalitarian Power by bringing into discussion a potential crisis generated by the conflict between the identity imposed by the political Power and one’s own values. The relationship between the diary character, implicitly the one from the documentary prose fragments ‒ narratives that identify with A. Marinat, articulating the trajectory of the writer’s human and literary destiny, and totalitarian Power, the reactions of the budding writer to the identity project imposed by the system ‒ will be analysed to underline the consequences of political pressure on the character’s moral profile. Thus, the study offers a broad perspective on the meaning of Power, seen on the one hand as "a diabolical force" and on the other hand as a "necessary evil" that involuntarily strengthens the identity of the individual, representing a case of resistance to the politics in which the power undoubtedly belongs to the writer A. Marinat.