The Problem of East and West in the Works of I. S. Shmelyov

From «The Inexhaustible Cup» to Late Prose

Abstract

The main goal of the proposed study is to study the artistic features of the vision of the East and West problem in the work of Ivan Sergeevich Shmelyov based on the story «The Inexhaustible Chalice» (1918, November) and a number of other works of the later, emigre period, including the stories «On Stumps» (1925), «Two Letters» (1924), «Birds» (1924) and the novels «Nanny from Moscow» (1933), «Summer of the Lord» (1934–44), «Heavenly Ways» (1948). The article examines the worldview of the Russian and the European, created by means of the writer’s artistic depiction, traces the attitude of Ivan Sergeevich Shmelyov to the Russian Orthodox Church in comparison with the Roman Catholic Church, compares the descriptions of the Orthodox and Catholic monasteries in the prose of Ivan Sergeevich Shmelyov. The most important results of the research: if sympathy for the West and a certain lack of clarity of position in relation to Catholicism are still observed in the story «The Inexhaustible Chalice», they disappear in later works. The sympathies of the heroes of Shmelyov’s émigré prose are unequivocally on the side of Russia and Orthodoxy. Passing his youthful fascination with the West and seeing its true face in emigration, Ivan Sergeevich Shmelyov returns to his origins, asserts himself in traditional Russian culture and the Orthodox faith.