«...EVERYTHING IS NOT ONLY THE MOST TRUTH, BUT EVEN BETTER THAN IT» (THE SECRET OF THE UNITY OF ETHICAL AND AESTHETIC IN СREATIVE MINDS Of PUSHKIN AND GOGOL)

Abstract

The article provides a comparative analysis of the reflections of Pushkin and Gogol on the nature of the relationship between ethical and aesthetic principles in the creative process. Based on the late lyric poetry of Pushkin, Gogol’s epistolary legacy of the early 1840s and a historical and literary excursion in «Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends», both rapprochements and fundamental differences in the positions of the two authors are revealed. Gogol’s judgments about the mystery of Pushkin’s personality and about «The Captain’s Daughter» as «the best Russian work in a narrative genre» can be considered as the basis for further multidirectional interpretations of the spiritual phenomenon of Pushkin in Russian criticism and literary criticism.