N. S. Leskov in the context of cultural history : A collective monograph

Abstract

   The review discusses a collective monograph by N. Sukhov, Y. Golubinskaya, E. Kazhukalo, A. Butkevich, A. Petrova, and E. Samoy lova, with O. Evdokimova as a contributor and the project’s supervisor. For the first time, scholarly research is focused on the aesthetic origins of Leskov’s works and an aesthetic concept is suggested as the determining force behind the idea and the poetics of his prose. According to the authors, the nature of Leskov’s unique poetics can be discovered through analysis of his output in the context of philosophy and art history; intermedial analysis, which compares his writings to the holy iconographic traditions and painting; and assessment of the artistic reception of the writer’s images in 20^th-c. art. The review emphasizes the aesthetical underpinnings of Leskov’s oeuvre identified by the monograph: a tendency toward the archaic and 20^th-c. aesthetic (avant-garde art), a synthesis of arts (literature and painting), the genre quality of a dialogue (Socratic dialogue), provocativeness, and game playing.