<The Author’s Confession> by N. V. Gogol in the Critical Reception of the First Wave of Russian Emigration
Balakshina Julia Valentinovna
Herzen University
Submitted: 14.11.2022
Abstract. The aim of the study is to determine the features of reception of N. V. Gogol’s creative work of the 1840s, primarily <The Author’s Confession>, by religious philosophers and literary critics of the first wave of Russian emigration. Scientific originality of the study lies in conducting a systematic analysis of critical articles by the representatives of the Russian émigré community in which <The Author’s Confession> is mentioned and in identifying the main conceptual lines along which the interpretation of Gogol’s creative work in Russian emigration was carried out. The paper presents the statements about <The Author’s Confession> by B. K. Zaitsev, Archpriest Vasily Zenkovsky, Archpriest Georgy Florovsky, S. L. Frank, K. V. Mochulsky. As a result, the two lines of perception of Gogol’s later works in the Russian émigré community have been identified: the aesthetic one, which emphasised the change in the quality of Gogol’s 1840s writings, and the religious-ethical one, which comprehended the significance of Gogol’s religious conversion as a writer for Russian culture and the Russian Church. It has been proved that the assessments of <The Author’s Confession> were directly dependent not only on the aesthetic and religious views of its critics, but also on those specific church schools and movements to which they belonged. For V. V. Zenkovsky, Gogol was a prophet and a pioneer of Orthodox culture, while G. V. Florovsky focused on the fact that the striving for the public good had obscured both artistic and ascetic tasks for the writer.
Key words and phrases: Н. В. Гоголь, проза 1840-х годов, Русское зарубежье, критическая рецепция, <Авторская исповедь>, N. V. Gogol, prose of the 1840s, <The Author’s Confession>, Russian émigré community, critical reception
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