The reception of the Renaissance conception of man in Ayn Rand's literary works

The aim of the paper is the detection of the reception of the Renaissance conception of man in Ayn Rand's fiction. This aim is determined by the fact that Rand's fiction contains features of many philosophical directions, yet it is the "monoduality" (J. Groth) of the Renaissance that correlates with Objectivism expressed in Rand's texts. Rand's "overcoming of duality" (C. Chiabarra) is similar to the Renaissance ideals. Renaissance ideas in Rand's texts are received through the influence of the ideas of T.S. Zielinski and of the thinkers of the Union of the Third Renaissance. In her texts, Rand rethinks human wholeness, a value of Renaissance humanism. She uses the theme of architecture for this purpose. In The Fountainhead, she presents an image of an architect (Howard Roark) who is close to the Renaissance ideals. The idea of humankind recreation via changing one separate human was close to Rand, and it unites her with Renaissance humanists. The idea of transformation of a person captured by Giovanni Pico della Mi-randola (Oration on the Dignity of Man) and by Giordano Bruno (The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast) turned into the idea of creation of a new human in Rand's texts. Bruno's heroic enthusiasm (extreme dedication in goal achievement, readiness to die for the idea) is demonstrated by such characters of her novels as Kira Argunova (We the Living), Dagny Tag-gart and Wet Nurse (Atlas Shrugged). The ability to accumulate material values arises from man's extreme dedication. This ability became sinless in the Renaissance, and Rand also supports it. The conflict between human body and soul, the contradiction between human's believes and his acts presented in the situations of Rand's novels create the non-wholeness in man (it was primarily stated by the Renaissance philosophers G. Manetti, G. Pico della Mirandola, etc.). "The religion of mind" as an attempt to overcome the duality of human consciousness preached by Renaissance philosophers becomes a cornerstone in Rand's philosophy of Objectivism. At the same time, Rand overcomes the "natural - social" dichotomy in her texts. The unity of man with the surrounding world is reconstructed in episodes of nature descriptions. Nature is understood in an infinistic way, and man is the creator in it. In conclusion, it is necessary to notice that Rand is not a direct successor of the Renaissance ideas, but she rethinks them ingeniously by recreating images of great characters in her novels. The Renaissance was a short period of human individuality's blossom which she received through Russian culture. Receiving the post-Renaissance aesthetics as destructive, she returns to the Renaissance conception of man, and rethinks it in her texts.

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