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THE CATEGORY OF EXISTENTIAL FEAR IN L .N. TOLSTOY’S SHORT STORIES THE KREUTZER SONATA AND THE DEVIL // Tomsk State Pedagogical University Bulletin. 2019. Issue 6 (203). P. 20-27

Introduction. This article is devoted to the problem of the formation of existential thought in the late works of Tolstoy. The object of the research is one of the most significant categories in the philosophy of existentialism – the category of fear. The research material is based on the novels The Kreutzer Sonata and The Devil; a comparative comparative method and a structural analysis method are used. The purpose of this study is to try to examine the writer’s appeal to the category of existential fear and to determine its functions in the late works of Tolstoy. This goal determined the following tasks: to determine the context for the formation of existential thought in the novels The Kreutzer Sonata and The Devil, to consider the category of existential fear in these works, and also to explain how using this category Tolstoy carries out a dialogue with the reader. The comparative method and the method of structural analysis were used in the work. Results and discussion. In the late period of creativity in the philosophical thought of Tolstoy there is an appeal to existential problematics. At the ideological level, the writer focuses on social conflicts and seeks the origins of social contradictions. In the conflict of relations between the sexes, the origins of the existential crisis of man and society as a whole. It is this period of the Russian classic that can be described as a period of artistic experiments. For example, in the late works of Tolstoy, the category of the reader is formed, and new content takes on new forms. It was during this period that the writer increasingly turned to small epic and dramatic genres. The relevance of the article is determined by the study of the existential problems of the late works of L. N. Tolstoy, separate aspects of the transformation of the creative method of the writer. The novelty lies in the fact that the category of existential fear is regarded as the key to the moral resurrection of the heroes of these stories. Conclusion. The preliminary conclusions are made that the existential category of fear is formed in connection with the social problems of the works, it becomes a way to overcome the moral death of the hero, and also acts as a link between the author and the reader.

Keywords: L. N. Tolstoy, Russian literature, existentialism, existential fear, gender, story, The Kreutzer Sonata, The Devil, poetics, author, hero, dialogue, reader