short prose

This article regards conceptual, structural and thematic strategies used by Beckett in the works of the short story collection Nouvelles et Textes pour rien. It indicates that the late Beckett builds upon the modernist short story with the finishing event of epiphany.

The motive of a person’s self-destruction is analyzed in the article on the material of V. Rasputin’s late short stories. These works show the signs of the anthropological crisis which is perceived by the writer not just as a threat of a distant future but as a danger hanging over humankind in the here and now.