The motive of overcoming history and fate and the Buddhist worldview in A. L. Ivanchenko’s novel “Monogram” and Mo Yan’s “Tired of being Born and Dying”

The article analyzes the motives of overcoming history and fate in the novels by A. L. Ivanchenko “Monogram” and Mo Yan “Tired of Being Born and Dying” in the context of the Buddhist worldview of both authors. The images of the main characters, the chronotope, the themes and problems of the works are examined through the prism of the Buddhist attitudes presented in the books; and life strategies and escape strategies of the Russian and Chinese characters are compared. The reborn Ivanchenko and Mo Yan's characters overcome their karma and their family's karma by conquering affective conditions and coming to the end of the life cycle. They discover the conventional nature of a human's existence through the motif of mirroring (the Russian author) and proximity to the wildlife (the Chinese author). The protagonists in the Russian and Chinese novels are characterized by a complex structure of consciousness, which tends to multiply and reveal its illusory nature. Time in both novels is cyclical and virtually devoid of movement, despite the presence of the characters in the actual political history. The space of both books tends to turn into a myth, revealing images of eternity through the earthly specifics of the place: the heroine of “Monogram” is in the Buddhist “looking glass”, while the hero in “Tired of being born and dying” is in the manor, which is a model of mythological cosmos. The controversial history of China and Russia of the previous century, A. L. Ivanchenko and Mo Yan's political extremes become a starting point for unfolding the internal plot, the plot of the heroes' Buddhist transformation and finding their Buddhist peace.