The main works of A. Platonov, written at the turn of the 20-30s ("The Hidden Man", "Doubting Makar", "Chevengur", "Pit"), are united by a special worldview, conveyed through the eyes of half-wits, cranks, wanderers contemplating a new reality. The central idea in the writer's work is the idea of foolishness, but not religious - "for Christ's sake", but foolishness "for the sake of a new life". In Russian literature, the image of the holy fool and his behavior is always, as A. M. Panchenko notes, based on the exposure of anti-Christian norms in the understanding of this holy fool (Likhachev D. S., Panchenko A.M. Laughter in ancient Russia. L., 1984. p.4). The question of Platonov's "foolishness" has been repeatedly raised by critics and researchers. Thus, the American scholar Thomas Seifrid considers the tongue-tied characters of Platonov as "one of the forms of speech that is likened to the words of fools" (For our translation, see: Seifrid T. Andrey Platonov / Incertains of spirit. P. 69). Our approach to the writer's" foolishness " is based on three criteria. Foolishness is studied by us as the image of characters, as the speech of characters, and as the author's position. Considering foolishness as the speech of characters, it is important to note that such words as foolishness, eccentricity, mask, antics, according to M. M. Bakhtin, have received a specific and narrow everyday meaning. They are often used to describe Platonov's language. The writer's defense of the grotesque nature of language leads him to the path of purely social or political satire. As for the author's position, it should be noted that the accusations of critics of the 30s, for example, E. Ermilov and A. Gurvich, were reduced to the fact that Platonov deserves the name of the singer of the holy fools. The result of such criticism was the writer's enforced silence in the following years. page 15 Criticism and accusations of literary officials were directed at the way the characters were portr ... Read more