Warnings and Foresights of Russian Classics: Between Absurdity and Tragedy

The article summarizes the ideas of paradoxical correlation of absurdity, as a characteristic code of the Russian culture, and tragedy, which is not just a genre, but a mentally deterministic modus of being. The Russian absurdity is defined at two main levels: the personality of creator and the mechanism of artistic image creation. The psychological, philosophical and aesthetic facets of Russian absurdity actualize in relation to the creative and, most importantly in our case, social, political exis­tence of the Russian classics: A.S. Pushkin, N.V. Gogol, A.P. Chekhov, A.M. Gorky, I.S. Turgenev, I.A. Goncharov, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin and A.V. Sukhovo-Kobylin, A.I. Solzhenitsyn. The article proves that the “Russian tragedy” is not just a genre characteristic of literary and theatrical works, but a specific, accepted by mass consciousness concept and a way of understanding the world, bordering on the grotesque. In the context of the absurd and tragic beginnings of Russian culture, there is built a paradigm of a kind of “counter-revolutionary”, which could literally be expressed by Russian immigrants-writers. There are marked the concerns about riots and revolutions, selfish and ridiculous notion of progress, which resulted in a system of foresights and warnings, presented in the Russian classical literature, regarding social cataclysms and overthrowing. The author sees the reason for the modern, gullible and sometimes aggressive mass consciousness to take the pulse of Russian classics.

Russian classics, absurdity, tragedy, foresight, warning, “counter-revolutionary”, A.S. Pushkin, N.V. Gogol, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, F.M. Dostoyevsky, A.N. Ostrovsky, A.P. Chekhov, A.M. Gorky, I.S. Turgenev, I.A. Goncharov, A.V. Sukhovo-Kobylin, N.A. Berdyaev, A.I. Solzhenitsyn

1. Zlotnikova T.S. Russkii absurd: klassicheskie istoki i aktual’nye praktiki [The Russian Absurdity: Classical Origins and Current Practices], Sovremennye transformatsii rossiiskoi kul’tury [Modern Transformations of Russian Culture]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 2005, pp. 442—480.

2. Zlotnikova T.S. Absurd [Absurdity], Kul’turologiya. Entsiklopediya: v 2 t. [Cultural Studies. Encyclopedia: in 2 volumes]. Moscow, ROSSPEN Publ., 2007, vol. 1, pp. 20—23.

3. Zlotnikova T.S. Esteticheskie paradoksy russkoi dramy: nauchnaya monografiya [The Aesthetic Paradoxes of Russian Drama: Scientific Monograph]. Yaroslavl, Yaroslavskogo Gosudarstvennogo Pedagogicheskogo Universiteta Publ., 2011, 288 p.

4. Berdyaev N.A. Samopoznanie [Self-Knowledge]. Moscow, Mezhdunarodnye Otnosheniya Publ., 1990, 336 p.

5. Mamardashvili M. Kak ya ponimayu filosofiyu [As I Understand the Philosophy]. Moscow, Progress Publ., 1992, 414 p.

6. Likhachev D.S. Istoricheskaya poetika russkoi literatury: Smekh kak mirovozzrenie i dr. raboty [Historical Poetics of Russian Literature: Laughter as a Worldview and other works]. St. Petersburg, Aleteiya Publ., 1997, 508 p.

7. Tertz A. V teni Gogolya [In the Shadow of Gogol], A. Terts. Sobr. soch.: v 2 t. [A. Tertz. Collected Works: in 2 volumes]. Moscow, Start Publ., 1992, vol. 2, 354 p.

8. Jung C.G. Problemy dushi nashego vremeni [Modern Man in Search of a Soul]. Moscow, Progress Publ., Univers Publ., 1996, 329 p.

9. Taina Pushkina: iz prozy i publitsistiki pervoi emigratsii [Pushkin’s Secret: From the Prose and Journalism of the First Emigration]. Moscow, Ellis Lak Publ., 1998, 541 p.

10. Pushkin A.S. Polnoe sobranie sochinenii: v 10 t. [Complete Works: in 10 volumes]. Moscow, Leningrad, Nauka Publ., 1949, vol. 7, 767 p.

11. Aristotle. Poetika. Ob iskusstve poezii [Poetics. On the Art of Poetry]. Moscow, Gosudarstvennoe Izdatel’stvo Khudozhestvennoi Literatury Publ., 1957, 184 p.

12. Sobolev Yu. “Revizor” [The Government Inspector], Spektakli i gody: sbornik [Performances and Years: Collection]. Moscow, Iskusstvo Publ., 1969, 520 p.

13. Grossman L. Tragediya-buff [Tragedy-Bouffe], Gogol’ i Meierkhol’d [Gogol and Meyerhold]. Moscow, Nikitinskie Subbotniki Publ., 1927, 88 p.

14. Svobodin A. Bol’shoi krug! [The Big Circle!], Teatr [Theatre], 1972, no. 10, pp. 17—28.

15. Vakhtangov E.B. Zapiski, pis’ma, stat’i [Notes, Letters, Articles]. Moscow, Leningrad, Iskusstvo Publ., 1939, 403 p.

16. Tovstonogov G.A. O professii rezhissera [About the Profession of Director]. Moscow, Vserossiiskoe Teatral’noe Obshchestvo Publ., 1967, 354 p.

17. Yuzovsky Yu. Sovetskie aktery v gor’kovskikh rolyakh [Soviet Actors in Gorky Roles]. Moscow, Vserossiiskoe Teatral’noe Obshchestvo Publ., 1964, 346 p.

18. Solzhenitsyn A.I. Razmyshleniya nad Fevral’skoi revolyutsiei [Reflections on the February Revolution]. Available at: http://www.lib.ru/PROZA/SOLZHENICYN/fevral.txt (accessed 16.08.2017).