Literature of Social Realism: The experience of understanding terminological boundaries

Despite numerous studies of socialist realism, the initial unscientific nature of this concept and the vagueness of its boundaries cast doubt on the very use of the term "socialist realism" nowadays. The purpose of the study is to objectively examine the degree of study of this problem and clarify the concept of "socialist realism" at the current stage of study. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that in order to clarify the concept "socialist realism", it proposes a value-based method of systematization based on the research of modern literature. It involves the classification of works on the basis of the ideological attitudes conveyed in them. The application of this method of systematization to socialist realism in the article is based on an analysis of its ideological nature, as well as modern scientific and critical reception of socialist realism. As a result of the research, it has been established that the value system of socialist realism literature at different stages of its development can be characterized as socialist humanism. However, in order to understand a particular work in the socio-cultural context of a particular era, it is necessary to take into account how the work correlated with Socialist realism in its assessment by the author himself, as well as critics and literary critics. Combining value-based and nominal approaches to the systematization of the work of socialist realist writers allows us to give it an axiological assessment free from ideological cliches.