Метанойя Л. Толстого
Tolstoy's Metanoia

Summary/Abstract: While Tolstoy’s ideological and religious turn is often mentioned in the special literature, the turn in his poetics is hardly ever. The present study focuses on the latter phenomenon. After the turn in his ideology and poetics, Tolstoy searched for such new forms to express his moral and philosophical thoughts as the legend, the apologue, the parable, the hagiography and the confession, etc. He elaborated such a comprehensive form of the short story which approaches the novelette in its length but condenses the conflict in a dramatic manner at the same time. The works to be analyzed here are the following: What Men Live By?, How Much Land Does a Man Need?, Father Sergey, Master and Man, Posthumous Papers of the Elder Fedor Kuzmich, The False Coupon. It is possible to understand the deeper meaning of these parables only if one is able to discover the archetypal mythemes in the deep structure of the concrete text, and trace them back to their primal form, which universalizes the mystery of resurrection for the receiver. The conclusion of this paper is that Tolstoy considered self improvement a universal law, with the help of which man can learn truth and transform it into living practice: aletheia turns into ethos

• Details
• Contents