Alexander Kuprin as a gardener: the self-presentation of a writer in literary interviews of Modernism

Abstract

This article examines the genre of “the literary interview” using the example of creative statements in the press by Alexander Kuprin at the beginning of the 20th century. At the begin ning of the genre, the principles and roles of interaction between interviewers and interviewees were laid down, and the expectations of the reading public on the formal and meaningful features of the genre were formed. The interview genre is considered in the context of the evolution of the literary form of the portrait in the formation of mass culture and there was increased inter est in the private life of writers as a characteristic feature of modernity. New materials not previ ously considered in the self-reflective narratives of writers are introduced. The vectors of Kuprin’s self-presentation are shown as creative tactics. The experience of interacting with the reader was prepared by the tradition of realism of the 19th century for the “naked truth of life”. The writer’s public position is conditioned by his published work, creative sympathies, and guidelines (Kuprin, as an opponent of avant-garde literature, is the heir to the tradition of Pushkin and Tolstoy). He positions himself as a creator, ready to let the reader into his creative laboratory, which was close to a simple “non-ethical” world. The author’s role model is the ex amination of the sick points of modernity (army life, prostitution, life in Soviet Russia).