FACTS AND FICTION: MEDIA AGENDA IN THE WORKS OF A. K. GOLDEBAEV (SEMENOV)
A. K. Goldebaev (1863-1924) was a writer and a journalist who spent most of his life in Samara. As a rule, at the turn of the century, many writers were actively involved in the process of creating the media agenda. In this regard, there was a problem of maintaining a balance between fiction and reality. The purpose of this article is to reveal the extent of artistic distortion of reality, based on the comparison of real newspaper publications and historical facts in the works of Goldebaev, devoted to the “newspaper” theme, such as “Ivan Stepanovich” and “Po ‘Brachnoy Gazete'” [“According to the ‘Marriage Newspaper'”]. Our research is based on these particular works because newspapers are their acting characters. Thus, the protagonist of the first story is misled by the provincial media, and he begins to fight against the public order. The protagonist of the second story dreams of meeting his love and turns to the “Brachnaya Gazeta” for help. The article concludes that the characters in the story are fictional; however, the historical background, against which the events of the story unfold, is true to life. As real as the newspapers, which are minor characters of these fictional works.