Abstract: The author of the article explores the issue of traditions and innovations in understanding the phenomenon of time in the novel by Y. Polyakov “Love in the Time of Change”. The novel traces not only the realistic method in depicting events but also the influence of the postmodern and neo-modern directions, primarily on the ideological and substantive level. The author of the paper analyzes the motive of a gap in time as a result of a cultural trauma, as well as a motive of ontological emptiness, reflecting the nature of the era of change, described in the novel. The method of research of this work is the cultural-historical approach. The theoretical basis of this study is the work of M. Lipovetsky, A. Schopenhauer, and M. Bakhtin. Thus, the researcher discovers such features of Yu. Polyakov's novel “Love in the Time of Change” as polyphony, the prevalence of laughter, elements of the language game, and the mask of the author-narrator characteristic of modern literature. At the substantive level of the novel, the researcher analyzes the opposition between historical contingence and time fragmentation that unites a number of non-modernist novels.