‘A GOATLING IN THE MILK’ AS A PARODY OF POSTMODERN DISCOURSE
The article discusses how to best analyze Yuri Polyakov’s novel-epigram ‘A goatling in the milk’. The transformation of genre forms is typical for modern Russian literature. Polyakov, a master of grotesque realism, masterly uses an arsenal of satiric techniques in order to accurately describe the situation in the literary world and in the country as a whole in Soviet and post-Soviet times. The plot of the novel is absurd, and the literary elite is the main object of his satire. Polyakov incorporated small genres into the narrative: jokes, ridicule, anecdotes, and aphorisms. The novel abounds with curious situations that transfer the reader to the bygones. Polyakov’s style is determined by a wide use of hyperboles, aphorisms, caricatures, parodies, precedent phenomena, and occasionalisms; the heroes generally appear as direct speech rather than being narratised. In his novel Polyakov is arguing with postmodernism, which, in his opinion, aﬃ rms relativism and denies the axiological function of art. Meanwhile, Polyakov uses innovative postmodernists’ techniques for a grotesque depiction of modern Russian reality. He touches upon an array of themes, including the role of talent in creating a literary reputation, the purpose of creativity, the writer’s attitude to his / her creation, and the myth of Pygmalion and Galatea.