Anthropocentrism and Cosmocentrism in the New Russian Literature

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Absract: This article describes a pattern in the evolution of modern Russian literature: between the 18th and 20th centuries, periods of cosmocentrism and anthropocentrism were constantly alternating. The former include 18th century, Golden Age, Silver Age, and the era of postmodernism. In these periods, literature is free from mimetic similarity to reality; it builds its own autonomous universe organized according to certain laws, and develops its own language, different from the one commonly used. Periods of anthropocentrism are Karamzin’s sentimentalism, 19th century realism, realism and even socialist-realism of the 20th century. Choosing a human being as the central point of reference, literature in these periods focuses on different aspects of life – mental, intellectual, religious, and social. Psychologism flourishes. Intellectual, sensory and other perceptions of a person become the basis of the mimetic function. Writers are, for the most part, faithful to linguistic meanings of the words that coincide with the commonly used ones. Such a sequential alternation of these periods appears to be a form of self-regulation of culture as an organism, which requires a sharp shift to one of the two focal points to be compensated each time by a corresponding shift to the other. 
Keywords: Russian literature, self-regulation of culture, anthropocentrism, cosmocentrism
Category: Vol 78, NO 1 (2019)
DOI: 10.31857/S241377150003916-0
Pages: 20-26
Author: Maria Virolainen
Information about the author: Head of the Department of Pushkin Studies. Affiliation: Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) Address: Russian Federation, St.Petersnurg

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