Autobiographies of the Writers of the 1960s: Fictional and Factual Modi of Perception

The article interprets genre peculiarities of a writer’s autobiography as one of the components of fictional-documentary metagenre. As the object of study the author chose autobiographies of the Ukrainian writers of the 1960s in whose works such a genealogical construction is local and is present only in the heritage of V. Didenko, B. Necherda, N. Svitlychna, V. Stus and Hryhir Tiutiunyk. In contrast to large epic works that are traditionally considered autobiographical autobiography properly is inclined to genre forms of small size created from the first person and enlightens the most important moments of the writer’s life and creative work in chronological succession. Such samples are based upon the definite scheme mainly used in clerical work. The writers’ autobiographies are written according to a certain template, the fictional components in them yield their informative level to the documentary facts but they reveal programmed life guidelines and world-view beliefs of the writers. By their thematic and style creating features autobiographies are quite heterogeneous and can be subordinated to certain systematization. Our observations enable to suggest our own classification of chronology writings represented by three varieties: factual, fictional and mixed. In such a format they get rid of the dependence on memoir prose and function fully as an independent artistic phenomenon, reflecting mainly life and creative credo of their author. Autobiographies are devoid of compositional, fable and narrative homogeneity, they are characterized by the diversity of the form, content and style.