Title of the article:

READING, WRITING, RESEARCH IN THE WORKS OF N. F. FEDOROV

Author(s):

Natalia N. Smirnova 

Information about the author/authors

Natalia N. Smirnova — PhD in Philology, Senior Researcher, A. M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya St., 25 а, 121069 Moscow, Russia. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6980-7353. E-mail: nnsmirnova@mail.ru

Section

Philological sciences

Year

2021

Volume

Vol. 60

Pages

pp. 201–207

Received

September 21, 2020

Date of publication

June 28, 2021

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37816/2073-9567-2021-60-201-207

Index UDK

821.161.1.0+82.09

Index BBK

83.3(2Рос=Рус)+87.3(2)

Abstract

The paper deals with the concept of reading developed by N. F. Fedorov. Reading is a part of the life-creating process aimed at resurrection — “sacred work of restoring” the lives of ancestors in the new world to come. Many Fedorov’s views on culture anticipate the ideas expressed in the first third of the 20th century, in particular, the arguments of M. O. Gershenzon in a famous dispute with Viach. Ivanov in “Correspondence from Two Angles” (1921), as well as directly anticipate the concepts of reading expressed in the works of M. O. Gershenzon and Lev Shestov. Fedorov speaks of the process of thinking as separating, not uniting. The separating is the price that humanity pays for the usefulness of such mechanisms of thinking as abstraction and analysis (breaking down, separation). At the same time, in Fedorov’s concept of reading (and the activities that continue it — writing and research) a synthesis of research work is shown through the achievement of a perfect state of the universe. The similar way of thinking was expressed later by M. O. Gershenzon in his theory of slow reading. Truth can be expressed only through the personal empathy of the reader, and the main goal of the process is creating the new world.

Keywords

Theory of literature, Russian spiritual culture at the turn of the 20th century, the concept of reading, N. F. Fedorov, M. O. Gershenzon, Lev Shestov.

References

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2 Gershenzon M. O. Demony glukhonemye. Stat'i, esse, zametki raznykh let [Deaf and dumb Demons: Essays], executive editor-compiler N. N. Smirnova. Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tsentr gumanitarnykh initsiativ Publ., 2017. 336 p. (In Russian)

3 Semenova S. G. Nikolai Fedorov i Fridrikh Nitsshe [Nikolay Fedorov and Friedrich Nietzsche]. In: N. F. Fedorov: pro et contra: v 2 kn. [N. F. Fedorov: pro et contra: in 2 books], preparation of A. G. Gacheva and S. G. Semenova. St. Petersburg, Izdatel'stvo Russkogo Khristianskogo gumanitarnogo instituta Publ., 2004, book 1, pp. 937–963. (In Russian)

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6 Fedorov N. F. Sobranie sochinenii: v 4 t. [Collected works: in 4 vols.]. Moscow, Izdatel'skaia gruppa “Progress” Publ., 1995. Vol. 2. 544 p. (In Russian)

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9 Shestov Lev. Sochineniia: v 2 t. [Essays: in 2 vols.]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1993. Vol. 1. 667 p. (In Russian)

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