The synthesis of documentary and fiction in the works of S. Aleksievich

Abstract

The article examines the characteristics of literary nonfiction. It describes the synthesis of documentary and fiction in modern prose in the works of S. Aleksievich. It explains the reasons for equating the testimony of witnesses to the documents of the era. There were revealed the writer’s methods of collecting, storing, processing of various documents: eyewitness accounts, newspapers, court orders, transcripts of trials, letters, diaries of soldiers, etc. The given article considers the composite structure of works of the writer such as «The Last Witnesses: the Book of Unchildlike Stories», «Zinky Boys: Soviet Voices from the Afghanistan War» and «The Chernobyl Prayer. The Chronicle of the Future». On the basis of the conducted research the author made a conclusion about the influence of non-fiction literature on the public, the art, particularly on theatre and cinema, as well as its impact on the further development of literature.