“WORLDVIEW GEOGRAPHY” OF THE WRITER: JUSTIFICATION OF THE CONCEPT (ON THE MATERIAL OF A. I. SOLZHENITSYN’S LITERARY WORKS)

Abstract

The article presents the substantiation of the literary concept «writer’s “worldview geography”» put forward by the author as one of the aesthetic principles of A.I. Solzhenitsyn. The author of the article aims at proving that the inclusion of the proposed concept in scientific circulation is relevant for the study of the writer’s aesthetics. Understanding the «writer’s “worldview geography”» as an aesthetic principle of the writer, which is realized in travel notes and literary texts about the journey based on the impressions of the trip, the author of the study insists that, choosing a place, Solzhenitsyn proceeded from his own ethical and aesthetic position, the writer explained the “alien” world through his own. Solzhenitsyn’s worldview, whose fate is inseparable from the fate of Russia and the Russian people, is the main reference point for evaluation. They are at the center of the writer’s world. Solzhenitsyn’s travel notes are an example of the writer’s high powers of observation, and also demonstrate not only topics of interest during the trip (history, modernity, connection with Russian, architecture, everyday life, school, religion, culture), but also the writer’s own ideological constants (the strategy of truth, convergence of ethics and aesthetics, memory, self-restraint, “sighted love” for Russia, comprehension of the Providence of God about man and people). Penetrating the very “air” of the horizons being opened, Solzhenitsyn the traveler encourages his Russian reader to think about the history, everyday life, lifestyle, philosophy and religion of the countries of the West and Asia. The material of the study was fragments of “essays on exile” by A.I. Solzhenitsyn dedicated to his trips to France, Norway, Sweden, England, Scotland, Spain, Japan, Taiwan, Canada and the USA. Writer’s speeches in the media during these trips are attracted as an additional material.