Abstract: The article deals with the problem of using and including the term "pre-post effect/paradox" ("pre-post effect"), introduced by the Czech comparativist Ivo Pospisil, in the terminological apparatus of literary criticism. Special attention is paid to the reflection by the term of the synthesis of superficial borrowing of a certain phenomenon from foreign literature and elements of the autochthonous tradition based on an interdisciplinary base, where the borrowing factor lies at the intersection of both philology and other humanities, in particular sociology, history, where the connection of language, text and culture is vividly manifested, resulting in the formation of an original characteristics of the recipient literature. A term reflecting an evolutionary mechanism of this scale needs additional comment and understanding, with mandatory reliance on the works of its creator, taking into account the refinement of some aspects of the mechanism of its work. A descriptive approach is used in terms of presenting the pre-post effect as a multidimensional phenomenon and clarifying the relationship of individual components to determine the exact semasiological boundaries of the term; the concept's attitude to the study of a literary text in the context of its general cultural conditionality in the aspect of the poetic art of the word reflects a cognitive (author, text, extra-textual reality) and axiological approach. According to the author, for the successful implementation of the pre-post effect, there is a need to define its role as a synthesis of two approaches to the consideration of a literary work: comparative historical and theoretical value, which contributes to an accurate consideration of the history of perception of the work and its inclusion in the literary canon as evidence of the originality of this literary tradition. This approach takes into account the theoretical aspect of the modification of genre models associated with the literary and critical history of works and combines them in order to substantiate the specifics of the literary phenomenon, relying simultaneously on the problems of poetics and non-textual factors. The scientific novelty consists in refining the structural and functional specifics of the pre-post effect to include it in a wide scientific circulation and the possibility of its practical use with the preliminary elimination of the existing controversial points and, as a result, demonstrating the possibility of using it to consistently adhere to the intersectoral aspect (at the junction of comparative studies, theory and literary history in their connection with axiology) in the further interpretation of literary works in order to overcome the one-sidedness of analysis in literary studies.

Abstract: The subject of the study is the evolution of the "little man" as a literary phenomenon based on the novels "Overcoat" by Gogol and "Irrepressible Tambourine" by Remizov. It is noted that the content of the term under study is not limited to the semantics of the image, which contains a meaningful characteristic of a certain type of literary hero, but depends on the narrative structure of the work. This position of the "little man" in Gogol and Remizov is at the intersection of interrelated factors: details as a carrier of the grotesque in fictional reality and at the level of narrative instance, as well as modifications of a specific genre form, expressed in the original construction of the composition – Gogol overcoming the genre of physiological essay and Remizov household anecdote, respectively. The study shows that detail plays a key role in the poetics of the works of these authors and determines not only the dynamics of the image in a particular work, but also forms an appropriate aspect of influence. Remizov inherits the indirect characterization of a literary character through the details of the external world, adopted by Gogol, but in another way secures with their help the status of the main character of the "Irrepressible Tambourine" as a small person at the narrative level due to a more open organization of the horizon of readers' expectations.  The task required the synthesis of a historical and genetic approach with a genrological (genological) one, which made it possible to consider the category of "little man" as an element of poetics, reinterpreted by Remizov in "Irrepressible Tambourine" under the influence of Gogol's work, and its significance in connection with the transformation of the genre model with an individual author's approach to narration. The study showed that Remizov overcomes the epistemological uncertainty of the narrator in the "Overcoat" and, thanks to the details referring to the mythopoeic context (Ancient Russia, Eros), builds the image of a small man (Stratilatov), whose insignificance and mediocrity are less related to the plot of the "Irrepressible Tambourine" than with archetypal references that are carriers of narrative semantics stories and setting the meaningful direction of the author's thought. Thus, the unknowability of the foundations of being by the character is emphasized at the narrative level of the work, enhanced by the grotesque characterization. The corresponding conclusion, according to the author of the article, is relevant in analyzing the system of images of literary heroes in Remizov and his anticipation of the work of European expressionist prose writers with their emphasis on the existential, rather than social source of human suffering.