Behind the stage of a literary text ‘The blessing of good health’

Abstract

The article continues the discussion started in ‘Behind the stage of a literary text. ‘Custom is despot among men’’ (Voprosy Literatury, 2020, issue 6). Health problems caused by poor hygiene, limitations of medical care, and inadequate physical activity of people in the mid-18th — early 20th cc. get almost no mention in fiction of the period, although they definitely had bearing on the life of any literary character of the day. Analysis of the culture of the everyday reveals factors that shaped philosophies of bygone-era authors, who inevitably fell under the influence of contemporary cultural and gender stereotypes embedded in the daily life. Such factors proved highly influential for plots, in particular, through aposiopesis. The article offers a comparison of the attitudes to unappealing hygiene-related subjects in literature and visual arts. Examined in detail is the problem of physical culture and sport: the 20th c. brought about radical cultural and psychological shifts in the attitude to these areas of human activities, especially among women, which often limits appreciation of both fiction of the past and events of its authors’ lives.