ТРАНСФОРМАЦИЯ ЕВРЕЙСКОЙ ТЕМЫ В РУССКОЙ ЛИТЕРАТУРЕ

The article deals, dash-like, with the development of Jewish subject matter in Russian literature: from taboo to self-reflection because of belonging to Jewry, from euphemisms of XIX and XX centuries to the open and proud declaration made by the conceptual Jew, Arkan Kariv, in his XXI century prose. Exemplified in fragments of writings by Dina Rubina, Friedrich Gorenstein, Valentin Rasputin, Alexandr Melikhov and Jury Karabchievsky, some facets of Jewish theme are discussed. In Kariv’s novels Interpreter and Once in Bishkek, a Jew — outsider, pariah, and self-reflecting intellectual — turns into a brutal leader named Martyn Zilber. A special subtlety of this novels’ structure is given by the fact of palimpsest: the reader understands that behind the Kariv’s writings is the novel by his father, Jury Karabchievsky, as much as behind Martyn Zilber’s father stands Alexandr Zilber, the hero of Karabchievsky’s novel.