The Literatures of Indigenous Peoples of the North Before and After 1917: Experience of Historical and Critical Reflection
The relevance of the topic depends on the need for critical reflection of the first indigenous writers in the Soviet and post-Soviet periods. The excursus on the history of writers among indigenous peoples of the North, the reference to the origins of their creative work, ideological and thematic content of the national identity of artistic expression allow us to represent them as a significant event of the time. In Soviet times, the literary and sociopolitical problems were considered important in analyzing the first works of indigenous writers. However, in the post-Soviet period there has been observed a philosophical perception of artistic expression of indigenous writers as well as its non-ideological interpretation and the postmodern "decoding". Journalistic style and polemical tone in the assessment of artistic and aesthetic phenomenon are characteristic for the post-Soviet criticism. The literature of indigenous peoples of the North is a case in point. The article states that the "post-modern" approach to artistic "texts" of indigenous writers, written in different periods of history, does not contribute to the identification of the national peculiarities of artistic expression and genre-stylistic originality of their works. Historical and critical perception of the subject allows us to represent the peculiarities of artistic expression of indigenous peoples of the North. The canons of ideology, as well as the crisp classification of national literatures in the Soviet period, on the one hand, the focus of Northern peoples' literature on the figurative, topical and value priorities in the folklore and national language, on the other hand, have determined the peculiarities of artistic expression of northern writers in the 1920-2000s. The article identifies the approaches and criteria to evaluate the creativity of northern writers in different historical periods. The article also specifies the methodological principles for the study of literature. Comparative historical and hermeneutical approaches are used to achieve this goal.