UDC

821.161.1

Authors

Berezina Olga Sergeevna
Mari State University
30 Pushkina St., Yoshkar-Ola, 424001, Respublika Mariy El, Russian Federation;
e-mail: o-beryuza@mail.ru

Abstract

To determine the place of the concept of home in Nikolai Leskov’s artistic worldview, the author of this article turned to the novel At Daggers Drawn and analysed a very peculiar home of one of its characters, an enterprising businessman, newspaperman and police collaborator Tikhon Larionovich Kishensky. This novel has been very little studied as, being anti-nihilistic, it was long considered anti-revolutionary. The study shows the functions of the image of Tikhon Kishensky’s house and its artistic peculiarities. The concept of home in this novel includes many aspects: it is used both as a scene of unfolding events, a means to describe the characters and a spiritual space. The author’s attitude towards home is very clearly expressed through metaphors, images and symbols, comparisons, description of the characters’ actions, portrait characteristics, antitheses and oxymora. The characters of the novel are quite clearly divided into good and bad ones by their attitude towards their family home, their house, as for Leskov home and family are a kind of an embodiment of moral values and stability, something that helps one stay strong in a constantly changing world. The deep significance of home lies in the fact that Leskov considers it to be a source and a foundation of human life and society in general, thus expanding the narrow meaning of this word to a concept and extending it to the whole Russia.

Keywords

N.S. Leskov, At Daggers Drawn, the concept of home, spiritual space, temple of the soul

References

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