Properties and signs of the epic in three novels by Leo Tolstoy

Abstract

The author of the article raises the question of the genetic relationship of the Russian novel of the second half of the 19th century with the epic, notes that it is precisely on the scale of the epic worldview that the global goal was set for themselves by Russian writers, when arguing about the need for universal coverage and understanding of life, of the insight of Divine laws. The article proves that one of the features of the epic novel included the turn to the popular worldview, but at the same time Russian writers were able to create an artistic world in which the importance of the personality is not diminished. The epic novel “War and Peace” opened up the opportunity for many of Leo Tolstoy’s contemporaries to create an epic novel based on the material of new and recent Russian history and contemporary life. The author analyses the features present in “War and Peace” and Leo Tolstoy’s epic novels “Anna Karenina” and “Resurrection” — the ratio of the personal and the common, the special integrity and totality of the artistic world, the objectivity of the narrative, the wide scope of events, the precedent picture of the world, etc. All the deeds of the heroes in the epic novel are evaluated not only from the position of a specific time, but from the position of eternity, from the point of view of religious consciousness.