Полемика реализма и модернизма в русской литературе начала ХХ века: Повесть Ивана Бунина «Дело корнета Елагина»

Abstract

This paper investigates the controversy on Realism and Modernism, observed in early 20th century Russian literature, by analyzing the story The Elagin Affair by Ivan Bunin. This paovest' was written based on the criminal trial on the real murder case of the beautiful actress Mariya Visnovskya in 1890. In this tale, Ivan Bunin depicted tragic love of young officer, Elagin toward the famous actress, Mariya, and, at the same time, tried to arouse an aesthetic controversy with his eternal opponent, the decadent writers, or senior symbolists. The "Ritual of Death" which was one of the principal syuzhet of Russian decadent literature in those days, appeared frequently in the works by Fedor Sologub, Zinaida Gippius and Dmitry Merezhkovsky. I. Bunin, intentionally, embodied this syuzhet in the action of Mariya Sosnovskya, the heroine of the story while the character of the second lieutenant Elagin, fascinated by Mariya, was described on the basis of the principle of Realism. I. Bunin suggests that the miscarried joint suicide of the two lovers was derived from the essential confrontation between the decadent concept of "Ritual of Death" (Mariya Sosnovskaya) and abundant passion for life (Elagin).