Abstract
The article examines the content and structure of the myth of happiness, which reflected the desire of Soviet literature to replace old stereotypes and ideas with new ones oriented towards a communist perspective. It is emphasized that the formation of the myth took place in several directions. In children's literature, relatively “free” of ideology, the myth of happiness became one of the forms of literary escapism, which made it possible to realize the dream of a happy life within a space remote from Soviet reality. In the official literature, a former part of Soviet ideology, the myth of happiness had a life-building and utopian plan. The life-building component was understood in the genre of a production novel, which glorified the happiness of free labor, found in the act of creating a new world. From this point of view, the article analyzes the novel-chronicle by V.P. Kataev "Time, forward!" The utopian content of the myth was embodied in A. Platonov’s works "Juvenile Sea" and "Happy Moscow", which heroes, like V. Kataev’s ones, dream of personal happiness melted in general one. At the same time, using subtext, hyperbolization, images-symbols, poetics of an absurd situation, A. Platonov recodes the myth. In his work an idyll turns into an anti-idyll, the concept of a tragic upside-down world is created, in which both the mythologeme of the "blissful country" and the myth of happy motherhood and childhood are reduced. At the same time, the article notes that in "industrial" prose, the myth of happiness had a dual meaning. V. Kataev introduced signs of skepticism and doubt into it. Thanks to this, the socialist "pastoral" chronicle acquired a travesty sound.
Key words
A. Platonov, V. Kataev, industrial novel, utopia, idyll, anti-idyll, children's literature.