V.F. Khodasevich's Memoirs (1922-1939): the Problem of Self-Representation in the Emigré Context

This paper is devoted to V. F. Khodasevich’s memoirs written in emigration in 1922-1939. One of the research questions is to explain why the author published his memoirs in a particular period of time, for what purpose he edited early texts. The answer to this question, as well as the analysis of the poetics of memoir essays and historical and literary context, allows us to approach the problem of Khodasevich's self-representation in emigration context. The selection of the facts of his own biography, their interpretation is directly related to the period of Khodasevich’s life, when memoirs were created, and with historical-literary context. In memoirs about his contemporaries, about the beginning of the XXth century, in the political and autobiographical essays, the author use mask of historian, critic, the writer related to Pushkin's tradition and, in general, the literary tradition of the XVIII-XIX centuries. The study of the pragmatics of the publication of memoirs and it’s poetics helps to understand how Khodasevich built his biography, designated the continuity of literary tradition and his attitude to the USSR.