Abstract
The Conflict of the Old and the New in the Antinihilistic Roman “In the Vortex” of a. F. Pisemsky
In Russia, the second half of the 19th century is a quite important period witnessing striking economical, social and political development and changes. In consequence of the emancipation by Czar Alexander II, the reforms made in the field of law, education and military, the old and the new generation come face to face. The new generation, impressed by the opinions of the Russian philosophers like N. A. Dobrolyubov and N. K. Chernyshevsky, denies all the value judgments and beliefs belonging to the past. The old generation, on the other hand, demonstrates that they tightly stick to the Russian traditions and orthodoxy, resisting to this nihilistic movement. The antinihilists regard the action and the thoughts of the young generation as a threat for Russia. The genre of the antinihilistic novel, criticizing the social, political and religion philosophy of nihilism, develops between the years 1860-1880.
Russian writer Aleksey Feofilaktovich Pisemsky (1821-1881), one of the most leading names of the Russian realism, presents the nihilistic and the antinihilistic heroes to the reader with a realistic style in his novel In the Vortex (В Водовороте) published in 1871. This work, describing a tragic picture of Russia the 1860s years, draws attention to the degeneracies in the structure of the family and the society. In this study, the development process in Russia and the characteristics of the antinihilistic novel are conveyed, the antinihilistic attitude of Pisemsky in his aforementioned work is put forward. The novel is analyzed with the historical literary method with a descriptive style.
Keywords
Antinihilistic novel, A. F. Pisemsky, nihilism, antinihilism.