Publication details
L. N. Andrejev v polemike vokrug rasskaza "Bezdna"
| Title in English | L. N. Andreev in the Polemic about the Short-story „The Abyss“ |
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| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2021 |
| Type | Chapter of a book |
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| Citation | |
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| Description | The short-story by L. N. Andreev „The Abyss“ («??????»), has been published at the outset of 1902. It has provoked heated ambiguous reaction among readers and critics. L. N. Andreev has responded to the polemic about the short-story not only in his letters but also in the daily press. The article compares two basic writer´s reactions concerning the short-story „The Abyss“, which have been published in the newspaper “Kurjer” in 1902 and 1903. The both text are analysed and interconnected with the text of Andreev´s short-story and with the common intention of writer´s work. The analysis testifies an immediate connection of Andreev´s views with the ideas of F. Nietzsche expressed in his book „Ecce homo“. To the basis link to Nietzsche became for Andreev the revaluation of all values construed as a doubt about the basic cultural rules of the society at the turn of 19th and 20th century together with the question about the relation of rationality and irrationality in psyche and in behaviour of any individual. The first Andreev´s text (January 1902) refers first of all to the question of “optimism” and declares the writer´s right to depict the animal-like, instinctive, irrational layer of human soul, i.e. of the dark roots of human soul which a cultural human being has to confront and overcome. The second text exposed to our analysis (“The Letter to the Editorial Office” by Nemoveckij) – which has been published in 1903 and is supposed to be written by V. Zhabotinsky – pays also attention to the relation between the categories of „irrational“ and „cultural“ but it covers also the question of the writer´s creative method. The letter presents another potential finale of the short-story „The Abyss“; its text touches the theme of ambiguity, variability, choice from more possibilities when the writer creates a literary work as a model of „reality“. The theme of depiction of deep contradictions which makes it possible to create a literary work as a provocation sui generis allows us to suspect that Andreev was either co-author or brought at least inspiration for the real author, because the aim to provoke was a constant feature of his creative manner. The analysed texts („texts behind the text“) make it possible to come closer to the idea of the short-story itself and also to the more accurate clarification of the Andreev´s worldview and of his creative credo. |