Symbolist criticism and new trends in Russian academic literary studies at the turn of the 20th century

The paper considers the impact that symbolists’ critics had on Russian academic literature studies at the turn of the 20th century. In the history of Russian literature symbolism went beyond the scope of the literary trend or school. Russian symbolists developed their philosophy that had prolonged effects on different cultural spheres and institutes. Symbolists considered critics as a creative activity which aims to interpret and anticipate the reality. Breaking away from the traditions of the 19th century, symbolists formulated a number of principles which specified the “new” critics: focusing on aesthetics (language, style, form) and the artistic concept represented in the piece of writing, emphasizing philosophical aspect of interpretation, changing the language and style of the critics themselves. These ideas lead to some important effects that symbolists’ critics had on Russian academic literature studies at the beginning of the 20th century, in particular its object, subjects, methodology, concepts, as well as the style of the then scientific papers. At the turn of the 20th century the literary studies focused on the contemporary literature. One of the most significant publications that indicated the coincidence in time and space between Russian literature and literary science was the book “Russkaya literatura XX veka (1890-1910)” edited by S.A. Vengerov. This book represented the contemporary literary process in its complexity. Sometimes one and the same writer was both the author of the article published and the object of study. The change of the study object inevitable resulted in the change of the subject. The symbolists’ critics focused on the piece of writing as an artistic phenomenon, which is original and unparalleled in its inseparable unity of idea and form. This idea was based on the philosophical concept of panaesthetism, which implies that the world itself is an aesthetic phenomenon transmitting the artistic energy of its creator. Any interpretation of the piece of art is subjective and far removed from being objective and formulating the full and complete idea of the writing. This viewpoint will be developed in the middle of the 20th century by the Constance School, which laid foundation for reception aesthetics. In their writings, both critics and fiction, Russian symbolists often expressed the cutting-edge ideas, which were later neatly justified and developed in different parts of the humanities - literature studies, linguistics, philosophy: the theory of dialogue, the theory of poetic language etc. The scientific papers of the second part of the 1910s, which became the milestones in the literature studies, were those by V.M. Zhirmusky and V. Shklovsky. These papers reveal a number of stylistic characteristics which contradict the objective and unemotional discourse of the scientific article. The style of these publications by V.M. Zhirmusky and V. Shklovsky incorporates the elements of scientific, publistic and belles-lettres styles. The author declares no conflicts of interests.

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