L. N. TOLSTOY’S “WAR AND PEACE”: MULTIGENRE CONTEXT, EPIC, MYTH AND RITUAL
https://doi.org/10.18384/2949-5008-2023-4-21-33
Abstract
Abstract
Aim. To consider the genre originality of L. Tolstoy's «War and Peace» in the multi-genre context of the ancient epic, as well as against the background of myth and ritual.
Methodology. The research uses the method of myth reconstruction, comparative and cultural-historical methods. The analysis of researchers' views on the genre of «War and Peace» by L. Tolstoy is carried out.
Results. The analysis has shown that the genre analogs of «War and Peace» are the Bible and «Mahabharata» to a greater extent than Homer's epic. «War and Peace» is not an exclusively aesthetic phenomenon, it is also a religious-didactic epic with initiatory-historiosophic pragmatics.
Research implications. Proposals for a more in-depth study of the features of sacred texts are introduced. Such techniques as anagramming, paronymic attraction, implicatures, and the introduction of foreign words are characteristic of the poetics of sacred texts. These techniques also play a role in the poetics of «War and Peace». The material comparing the motif structure and the image one of the ancient epic and Tolstoy's epic is summarized.
About the Author
E. Yu. PoltavetsRussian Federation
Сand . Sci . (Philology), Assoc . Prof ., Department of Philology, Institute of Humanities
Vtoroy Selskohoziajstvenny proezd 4, Moscow 129226
References
1. Apostolov N. N. Lev Tolstoj nad stranicami istorii [Leo Tolstoy over the Pages of History]. Moscow, Commission to commemorate the centenary of the birth of L. N. Tolstoy Publ., 1928. 296 p.
2. Gachev G. D. Soderzhatel’nost’ hudozhestvennyh form. Epos. Lirika. Teatr [Content of Artistic Forms. Epic. Lyrics. Theater]. Moscow, Prosveshchenie Publ., 1968. 302 p.
3. Gej N. K. [On the Poetics of the Novel (“War and Peace”, “Anna Karenina”, “Resurrection”)]. In: Izvestiya AN SSSR. Seriya literatury i yazyka [News of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Literature and Language Series], 1978, vol. 37, no. 2, pp. 121–132.
4. Grincer P. A. Izbrannye proizvedeniya. T. 1: Drevneindijskaya literatura [Selected Works. T. 1: Ancient Indian literature]. Moscow, Russian State University for the Humanities, 2008. 548 p.
5. Ibatullina G. M. Istoriosofskij mif v kontekstah russkoj literatury ХIХ veka: I. S. Turgenev, F. M. Dostoevskij, N. S. Leskov, L. N. Tolstoj [Historiosophical Myth in the Contexts of Russian Literature of the 19th Century: I. S. Turgenev, F. M. Dostoevsky, N. S. Leskov, L. N. Tolstoy]. Moscow, Flinta Publ., 2020. 160 p.
6. Leontyev K. N. O romanah gr. L. N. Tolstogo. Analiz, stil’ i vѣyanіe (kriticheskіj etyud) [About Novels of L. N. Tolstoy. Analysis, Style and Trends (Critical Study)]. Moscow, Sablin V. M.’s Publ., 1911. 152 p.
7. Linkov V. Ya. “Vojna i mir” L. N. Tolstogo [“War and Peace” by L. N. Tolstoy]. Moscow, Moscow University Publ., 2018. 111 p.
8. Mann T. Die Kunst des Romans (Rus. ed.: Etkind E., transl. Iskusstvo romana. Lekciya, prochitannaya studentam Prinstonskogo universiteta. In: Mann T. Sobranie sochinenij. T. 10 [Collected Works. Vol. 10]. Moscow, State Publishing House of Fiction, 1961, pp. 272–287).
9. Nazirov R. G. [The Epic Basis of “War and Peace”]. In: Nazirovskij arhiv (elektronnyj nauchnyj zhurnal) [Nazirovsky Archive (Electronic Scientific Journal)]. 2013. № 1. Available at: http://nevmenandr.net/nazirov/journal/NA_2013_1.pdf (accessed: 28.08.2023).
10. Nedzveckij V. A. Russkij social’no-universal’nyj roman XIX veka [Russian Social-Universal Novel of the 19th Century]. Moscow, Dialog-MGU Publ., 1997. 264 p.
11. Poltavets E. Yu. [“War and Peace” by L. N. Tolstoy against the Background of a Religious-Didactic Epic]. In: Vestnik Moskovskogo universiteta. Seriya 9: Filologiya [Bulletin of Moscow University. Series 9: Philology], 2014, no. 4, pp. 101–122.
12. Poltavets E. Yu. [Mythological and Ritual Basis of the Russian Historiosophical novel (“The Captain’s Daughter” by A. S. Pushkin and “War and Peace” by L. N. Tolstoy]. In: Lev Tolstoj: literatura i filosofiya [Leo Tolstoy: Literature and Philosophy]. Moscow, St. Petersburg, Centr gumanitarnyh iniciativ Publ., 2020, pp. 322–337.
13. Prokopchuk Yu. V. [Religiosity of Leo Tolstoy and Albert Schweitzer]. In: Lev Tolstoj: filosofskaya perspektiva [Leo Tolstoy: Philosophical Perspective]. Moscow, St. Petersburg, Centr gumanitarnyh iniciativ Publ., 2022, pp. 178–193.
14. Gulin A. V., ed. L. N. Tolstoj: nravstvennyj poisk i tvorcheskaya laboratoriya [L. N. Tolstoy: Moral Search and Creative Laboratory]. Moscow, IMLI RAN Publ., 2021. 480 p.
15. Andreeva V. G., ed. Fenomen epicheskogo romana v russkoj literature vtoroj poloviny XIX veka: I. A. Goncharov, I. S. Turgenev, L. N. Tolstoj, F. M. Dostoevskij [The Phenomenon of the Epic Novel in Russian Literature of the Second Half of the 19th century: I. A. Goncharov, I. S. Turgenev, L. N. Tolstoy, F. M. Dostoevsky]. Kostroma, Kostroma State University Publ., 2022. 512 p.
16. Halizev V. E., Kormilov S. I. Roman L. N. Tolstogo “Vojna i mir” [Roman L. N. Tolstoy “War and Peace”]. Moscow, Vysshaya shkola Publ., 1983. 112 p.