Existential fear as a category of creative experiment in the novella “The Kreutzer Sonata” by L. N. Tolstoy

About the authors:

Kristina M. Tsayzer, Postgraduate Student, Department of Russian and Foreign Literature, National Research Tomsk State University; golikovak2012@yandex.ru

Elena G. Novikova, Dr. Sci. (Philol.), Professor, Department of Russian and Foreign Literature, National Research Tomsk State University; elennov@mail.ru

Abstract:

Fictional works of L. N. Tolstoy, written after the spiritual crisis of 70s-80s, lose their firm integrity and uniqueness. The works of this period are filled with new searches of ideological content as well as the ways of its communication. These changes prove the extraordinary sensitivity of the writer and thinker of such a scale, who perceived the emergence of a new cultural paradigm. The article is devoted to the change of the creative method of L.  N.  Tolstoy in the late period of his work in terms of the formation of existential thought as an experiment of the writer. A brief review of the study of the writer’s artistic literary features in different periods of his creative work is presented, an important component of which is the integration of existential aesthetics. The material for the study is the later novella of L. N. Tolstoy “The Kreutzer Sonata” as one of the most striking works of the writer’s last period. The research focuses on the existential category of fear, which is the key to the consideration of this story. Initial conclusions are drawn; they show that the existential category of fear forms the ideological content of the work and also it acts as a link between the author and the reader. The study of Tolstoy’s creative work from the perspective of the emergence of experimental aesthetics is a new and relevant direction of modern literary criticism. The result of the research is the proof that the philosophical thought of the writer, presented in his fictional work, allows considing Tolstoy not only as a predecessor of existentialism in the philosophy of the 20th century but also as an artist who conducts a special creative experiment.

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