Identity of Russia in the context of its classical literature of the second half of the 19th century

Abstract

The main characteristic features of Russia’s identity are integrity, self-sufficiency, uniqueness, and self-development. In addition, the parameters included in these characteristic features are identified, such as universality and harmony for integrity, genesis, formation for self-sufficiency, attempts to express it in Pochvennichestvo and Slavophilism. Uniqueness is characterized by vivid literary features that cannot be confused with anything else and “living life” (V.V. Veresaev’s term) as the embodiment of human existence in literature. Self-development of Russian classical literature was determined by: the desire for practical embodiment of spirituality in the aspirations of the people, in the formation of the soul, reliance on a deep synthesis of various genres, each of which also went through its stages of formation, contrasts and contradictions associated with the fundamental principle of dialectical development – “interaction of opposites”. The development of ideas about identity in socio-political sciences complements the ideas developed in this work. Identification of the individual in Russian literature goes through the limits of perception of the world and being, which were touched upon by many Russian writers and, above all, Dostoevsky, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Leskov, Chekhov, and these were completely different limits. The identity of Russia, which is based on the identification of literature is quite easily substantiated and has great prospects. Its substantiation has visual consistency, clarity, rationality, and evidence. In addition, it has great prospects because literature can penetrate almost everywhere – into any social and humanitarian sphere. It easily interacts with music, painting, theater, and, according to leading modern philosophers, begins to replace philosophy. In our opinion, a new type of synthesis of literature and philosophy is beginning to form.