Russian Literature and Philosophy: Problems of Study and Preliminary Results

Abstract

The paper provides an analytical and historical survey of the studies of the interaction between literature and philosophy in the Russian and foreign humanities. Particular attention is paid to the paradoxical fact that despite the obvious synergy of philosophy and literature in Russian culture, which is essentially “a form of national self-consciousness,” there have not yet been developed optimal methods and tools to access the philosophy of the literary text. Thus, huge factual material has been left unexamined. It seems that the current surge of interest in the interaction of literature and philosophy is related not so much to the national cultural tradition as to the relevance of this topic in the West, where non-literary circumstances have not affected philosophical interpretation of literary texts. The break with the original national philosophy of the early 20th century, caused by socio-historical cataclysms, has posed a dilemma for Russian scholars: either to leave theoretical questions unresolved or resolve them with the reference to the Western models offered by the “continental” tradition or the analytical philosophy of literature.