Kovinko M. The Author's Mask in Ukrainian and Russian Short Stories of the End of the XX - Beginning of the XXI Century.

In the thesis authors' masks in Ukrainian and Russian small prose are compared for the first time, and also main markers of the author's mask and its basic types are determined. In the course of the study the researcher derives the definition, according to which the author's mask is a chosen by author-creator form of self-representation in a literary work such as an author-in-the-text's image, a narrator (teller), an autobiographical character, a system of author's doubles, etc. It is proved that the most appropriate approach to typological authors' masks' classification is a formal one, which is related to narratology. The primary types of narrative author's mask in Ukrainian and Russian literature are a fictitious narrator's mask, an autobiographical mask and an image of the author-character. The object of the study are short stories, novellas and essays by writers of the end of the XX ? beginning of the XXI century (S. Andrukhovych, Yu. Buida, V. Dibrova, Yu. Vynnychuk, D. Gutsko, M. Yelizarov, S. Zhadan, O. Zabuzhko, B. Zholdak, A. Ilichevskii, O. Irvanets, Marusia Klimova, I. Kochergin, L. Petrushevskaya, V. Portiak, V. Pelevin, A. Sanchenko, A. Snegirev, H. Tarasiuk, I. Yarkevich, etc.).