Vasilii Shukshin, the writer and his times

The thesis consists of five chapters. They provide a comprehensive look into the connection between Shukshin's prose and the reality of Soviet life. The review of his critical articles and essays gives an insight into his thoughts about the changes which Khrushchev's and Brezhnev's eras produced in the spirit of the society and in the individual. Also studied was the effect which these changes had on the inner world of Shukshin himself--the decisions and compromises which he had to make in the course of his work. Marching in step with the times, the author was constantly re-evaluating his earlier conclusions. As a result, the body of his work, as a whole, reflects the dynamic nature of Shukshin's creative process and the ambiguity of his position in regard to the problems which he concentrated on. This dissertation includes an analysis of some of Shukshin's most representative works from all of the literary genres on which he worked. The objective of this dissertation is to trace the connection between Shukshin, an individual, and a civic minded writer on one hand, and contemporary society on the other, in order to evaluate his impact on the transformation of the form and content of Soviet literature of that time.U of I OnlyETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permissio