Sudden and Predicted Death in the Works of I. S. Shmelev

Abstract

The main goal of the study is to continue studying the problem of death in the works of I. S. Shmelev, in particular, to identify the author’s understanding of sudden and predicted death. The work uses the comparative historical method and the method of philological analy­sis. To achieve this goal, the literary works of I. S. Shmelev are analyzed, in which the theme of death is encountered, in particular, the novels «Love Story», «Nanny from Moscow», «Summer of the Lord», the stories «Pilgrim», «Rosstani» and others. Features of the depiction of sudden and predicted death are considered in the works of I. S. Shmelev in comparison with the works of I. A. Turgenev and L. N. Tolstoy, touching on similar issues. The most important results of the study: sudden death — for the most part — befalls sinners, and death predicted or predicted in advance is the lot of the righteous. The difference between Shmelev, on the one hand, and Tolstoy, together with Turgenev, on the other, is that the former himself has the same Christian beliefs as his heroes, and consciously builds the plot of his works (and the place of the fact of death in it) according to what is known to him Christian law, and the latter treat their heroes and their faith as an aesthetic phenomenon worthy of admiration (Turgenev) or imitation (Tolstoy), but in both cases the beliefs of the heroes are internally alien to the authors. The article continues the consideration of the theme of death in the works of I. S. Shmelev, begun in previous works.