The second part of Goethe’s “Faust” in Turgenev’s creative reception: theme of Elena

https://doi.org/10.20339/PhS.5-18.059

Belyaeva Irina A.,

Doctor of Philology, full professor, professor of Russian Literature department,

Institute of Humanities and Management at MCРU,

professor of Philological Faculty

Lomonosov Moscow State University

e-mail: belyaeva-i@mail.ru

The article deals with the question of creative refraction in Turgenev’s novels “On the Eve” and “Fathers and Sons” of the theme of Elena, which is the “semantic focus” of Goethe’s “Faust” and is most pronounced in the second part of the book. The complex character of Turgenev’s comprehension of certain ideological, artistic and spiritual-religious decisions of the late Goethe is analyzed in this paper. In spite of the fact that Turgenev in his letters and literary-critical articles mentioned of the second part of “Faust” negatively, there is a basis for posing the problem of the influence of this “controversial” text on Turgenev as novelist.

Keywords: I.S. Turgenev, J.-W. Goethe, “Faust”, “On the Eve”, “Fathers and Sons”, theme of Elena.

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