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Keywords: classics, fiction, Russian character, “predatory type”, epic, Russian novel, spiritual quest, F. M. Dostoevsky, E. A. Salias.
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Mikhnovets N. G. “‘The Pugachevites’ by E. A. Salias in the Reception of F. M. Dostoevsky: on the Epic Character of the Russian Novel.” Dva veka russkoi klassiki, vol. 3, no. 4, 2021, pp. 92–113. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.22455/2686-7494-2021-3-4-92-113 

Author: Nadezhda G. Mikhnovets
Information about the author:

Nadezhda G. Mikhnovets, DSc in Philology, Professor, The Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia, nab. r. Moiki, 48, 191186 St. Petersburg, Russia.

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0674-1964

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

Received: July 16, 2021
Approved after reviewing: September 09, 2021
Published: December 25, 2021
Issue: 2021 Volume 3 No. 4
Department: Russian Literature of the 18th–19th Centuries
Pages: 92–113
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22455/2686-7494-2021-3-4-92-113
UDK: 821.161.1.0

Acknowledgments:

The study was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR), number 20-012-00102.

Abstract:

The article analyzes the nature of the interaction between first-line literature and fiction in the 1860–1870s as dynamic, versatile and dialogical. It is argued that the historical novel by E. A. Salias “The Pugachevites” (1874), based on the discoveries of the epic novel “War and Peace” by L. N. Tolstoy, testified to the process of strengthening the epic tendency in Russian literature of the 19th century. The novel by E. A. Salias was not exclusively secondary, the portrayal of the “predatory type” hero became innovative, but not deeply understood by the fiction writer. It is noted that further development was undertaken by F. M. Dostoevsky at the first stage of the creation of the novel “The Adolescent”. Its distinctive feature was the consideration of the “predatory type” in the context of the Russian history of spiritual quests of the 17th–19th centuries. The description of the stages of development of the type by F. M. Dostoevsky made it possible to come to the conclusion that the process of cognition of the Russian character, the identification of the laws of the historical development of Russia presupposed a versatile comprehension of the national foundations of life, which predetermined the epic character as the leading feature of the Russian novel of the second half of the 19th century.

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