Contemporary Prose of Karelia in Karelian, Veps, and Finnish

The paper analyzes the literary process in the prose genre in the times of the new border reality. The subject of the study is original stories, novellas, and novels written in Karelian, Veps, and Finnish. The aim is to spot vulnerabilities in the modern prose. The historical literary and comparative-contrastive methods were applied. Common features of Karelia’s ethnic literatures were identified. Ethnic and cultural boundaries often become the topic of autobiographic stories and novellas in modern fiction. Bilingualism is observed among Karelians, who write in Karelian and Finnish. There are ethnic Karelians, Veps, and Finns in each of the three ethnic literatures who chose to write in a non-native (Russian, Finnish) language. As migration processes intensified in the 21st century, the issue of self-identity and classification of the literature of Karelia remained topical for writers. The situation with the development of large genres in the republic corresponds to pan-Russian trends. There is a crisis in this sphere.