Evenings in Cairo by V.S. Solovyov and D.N. Tsertelev as a philosophical dialogue

The article considers one of the earliest works of V.S. Solovyov written in co-authorship with D.N. Tsertelev, Evenings in Cairo. It rarely, if ever, comes into the focus of Russian scientists-philologists and only due to other works of Solovyov. On the assumption that the picture of the creative activity of Solovyov cannot be accurate and complete without the study of all his works (especially with regard to the importance of this figure for the reflection of the development of Russian literature at the end of the 19th century), we turn to an analysis of his Evenings in Cairo. We consider the genre characteristics of the work. Evenings in Cairo can be attributed to the genre of philosophical dialogue, going up to the traditions of Plato's dialogue. The main features of Plato's dialogue are: 1) the gradual development of the author's thoughts in the form of a conversation-dispute between two or more persons; 2) the focus of the debate is to convince the interlocutor, introducing them to the truth; 3) the specific place and time of the dialogue, the presence of historical prototypes of its participants; 4) a leading position in the dialogue of one of the interlocutors (originally appeared under the name of Socrates, and later could have a different name) who usually has a distinct appearance and character; 5) the presence of elements of drama: a) a set course of the situation (scenario) of the conversation; b) distinction of images of the dialogue participants; c) the spontaneity of conversation occurrence, the easiness of its course, its development is not progressive, but broken; 6) polyphony. Evenings in Cairo by V. S. Solovyov and D. N. Tsertelev were oriented in the form on Plato's dialogue, which was expressed in the dramatic nature of the narration, individualized speech of the interlocutors, presentation of the philosophical thought through all the stylistic harmony, use of the maieutics method. In the work, the image of Socrates, a temperate wise man trying to bring the interlocutor to the truth, is similar to the one formed in Plato's dialogues. The presence of these features in Evenings in Cairo allows to claim that the form of the work was chosen deliberately. Solovyov's experiments with the artistic form of the philosophical dialogue at the early stage of writing were associated with the search for the most appropriate genre for the expression of his philosophical views. This search was efficient, because Evenings in Cairo influenced the literary works of Solovyov in the 1870s - 1890s, in particular, his comic plays and his last work The Three Conversations. Despite the small volume and incompleteness of the text, the controversial character of authorship, Evenings in Cairo has an artistic value and require further work of researchers.

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