ВОЗВРАЩАЯСЬ К ИЗВЕСТНОЙ ПОЛЕМИКЕ (Б. ШОУ В СПОРЕ С Л. ТОЛСТЫМ О ШЕКСПИРЕ)
ANOTHER POINT ОЕ VIEW ON THE PROBLEM BERNARD SHAW AND LEO TOLSTOY: TWO APPROACHES TO SHAKESPEARE

Summary/Abstract: In this essay the author compares the position of two opponents of Bardolatry — Leo Tolstoy and George Bernard Shaw. Shaw’s criticism of Tolstoy’s essay on Shakespeare is analysed in connection with the evolution of Shaw’s attitude to Shakespearian dramaturgy. The difference in the foundations of Tolstoy’s and Shaw’s critical “attacks” on Shakespeare is underlined in the paper. To elucidate these differences the author also makes use of L. Tolstoy’s essay What is Art?, his correspondence with G. B. Shaw together with some of Shaw’s prefaces to plays, articles and reviews. Two great writers’ approaches to Shakespeare were quite different because of the different criteria. Tolstoy’s principal criterion was the “high religious feeling”, meanwhile the aesthetical criterion was of immensely great importance to the author of Heartbreak House. In spite of the divergence in views Shaw remained a true admirer of Tolstoy and considered himself to be a follower of the latter in some literary aspects. This factor made Shaw’s polemics with the Russian writer and thinker especially valuable for com­prehending the real meaning of Tolstoy’s essay on Shakespeare as well as its importance for the further development of Shakespearian scholarship.

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