The textbook consists of review and monographic chapters, presents a modern view of the literary process of the XX — early XXI century, examines the work of poets, novelists, playwrights who caused an extraordinary rise in spirituality and culture of the period under consideration. The analysis of the top works of Nobel Prize laureates is given: I. Bunin, B. Pasternak, M. Sholokhov, A. Solzhenitsyn, I. Brodsky, writers- front—line poets and prose writers. Attention is paid to the work of writers of Russian emigration. The section "Modern prose" includes materials on philosophical and aesthetic searches in the works of such writers as V. Rasputin, L. Borodin, Yu. Polyakov, B. Ekimov, A. Bitov, V. Makanin, A. Kabakov, V. Tokareva, etc. It offers questions and tasks for independent work, topics of abstracts, term papers and theses, a list of bibliographic sources. Meets the requirements of the federal state educational standards of higher education of the latest generation. Designed for students of higher educational institutions.