BETWEEN A POSTULATE AND THE REALITY: ON THE PROBLEM OF ‘RUSSIANNESS’ AND ‘NON- -RUSSIANNESS’ – NOT ONLY – LEONTYEV’S IDEAS Cover Image

Между постулатом и реальностью. O проблеме «русскости» или «нерусскости» – не только – мысли Лентьева
BETWEEN A POSTULATE AND THE REALITY: ON THE PROBLEM OF ‘RUSSIANNESS’ AND ‘NON- -RUSSIANNESS’ – NOT ONLY – LEONTYEV’S IDEAS

Author(s): Marian Broda
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Russian Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
Keywords: Leontyev; Russia; tradition; ‘Russianness;’ ‘non-Russianness;’ problematization

Summary/Abstract: The uniqueness and importance of Konstantin Leontyev’s thought in the Russian intellectual and cultural tradition stems from the fact that it creates a viewpoint essentially transcendental as compared with what is central, dominant and mainstream. Leontyev’s way of problematizing basic principles, assumptions and socio-institutional correlates of this tradition introduces the need – and at the same time creates an opportunity – for a real problematization of the alleged ‘Russianness’ or ‘non-Russianness’ of his ideas. At a closer inspection, it turns out that the ‘Russianness’ or ‘non-Russianness’ is not so much a quality of Leontyev’s concept itself, but above all a characteristic of the ways in which its Russian interpreters understand the world. What one is faced with, in fact, is the postulated sense of not only Leontyev’s concept, but also of the ‘Russianness-non-Russianness’ relationship itself. Hence the main question to be posed is: why would one postulate them – for what purpose and with what outcome – in this particular way?

  • Issue Year: 2015
  • Issue No: 8
  • Page Range: 19-28
  • Page Count: 10
  • Language: Russian