Ilf’s «Zapisnye Knizhki» [Sketch Books] of 1930s as the proof of social realistic discourse formation

The article theme is topical for the reason that Ilya Ilf in Zapisnye knizhki criticizes the socialist realism the art that propagandized and did not pay attention to the artistic expression quality and originality. In recent decades we can witness return of social realistic writing in the works of such authors as A. Ivanov, Z. Prilepin, K. Silvanova and E. Malisova. It appears that in the course of studying the classic Stalinist social realism and critical reflecting it is possible to understand certain patterns of the modern literature process. The research objective was to study Ilf's critique peculiarities and its objects. The article basic research methods comprise semiotic and intertextual analyses. The article beginning considers the context of Ilf's writing in 1930-s years. The stories by Ilf and Petrov, E. Zozulja and Barricady [Barricades] novel by P. Pavlenko were considered as the empiric material. As a result of the research, two thematic dominants of the writing were distinguished: 1) critical judgment of I. Ilfs literature colleagues who started working in social realistic manner in 1930-s years; 2) ironic attacks at the forming social realistic canon. Both of the writing thematic domains are polar opposite to Ilf and Petrov's artistic expression within the specified period. The coauthors created several social realistic texts, and some parts of Odnoetazhnaya America [One-storied America] are semantically compliant with the key Soviet ideology intentions. Thus, it is possible and necessary to distinguish between Ilfs independent creative working and the coauthors late works, where E. Petrov was an evident leader.