Smykovskaya T. E.

Images of saints as an element of the sacred topos in A. I. Solzhenitsyn’s epic The Red Wheel  P. 100 -108.

UDC 821.161.1-31.09«19»

DOI 10.37724/RSU.2024.82.1.010

 

Abstract. The article is devoted to one of the key works of Russian literature of the second half of the twentieth century, the ten-volume epic by A. I. Solzhenitsyn The Red Wheel. The object of research is the religious discourse in the epic, namely the system of images of saints, through which the writer reveals the main ideas of his work. Despite the fact that in recent decades the artistic world of the epic has been actively studied, the images of saints have not become the subject of special study. The purpose of the article is to analyze three dominant images: Seraphim of Sarov, St. Nicholas and St. George the Victorious. The present research seeks to show that, by including images of saints in the artistic fabric of the epic, A. I. Solzhenitsyn demonstrates not just the loss of the Orthodox faith on the eve of the February Revolution of 1917, but a deep moral crisis that struck the Russian people, as a result of which they were unable to resist the destructive historical processes at the beginning of the twentieth century. The author of the publication proves this: the artistic originality of the religious discourse lies in the fact that the images of saints are unequally compositionally positioned in the space of the work. They can be projected onto heroes, such as Seraphim of Sarov. However, most often, as in the case of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and St. George the Victorious, they are an element of the cultural and religious consciousness of the heroes and actively influence their earthly and spiritual existence. The results of the study may help literary scholars when studying the spiritual topos of The Red Wheel, as well as university lecturers and school courses of literature and history.

 

Keywords: image of Seraphim of Sarov, image of Nicholas the Wonderworker, image of St. George the Victorious, Christianity, Orthodox faith.

 

 

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