Hero or Anti-hero? (The Problem of the Hero in the Works of M. Gorky in the Early 1920s)

Occupation: Leading Researcher
Affiliation: A. M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Address: Russian Federation, Moscow

Journal name

Izvestiia Rossiiskoi akademii nauk. Seriia literatury i iazyka

Edition

Volume 80 Issue 5

Pages

81-91

Abstract

The article considers one of the key elements of Gorky’s philosophical-ethical system – the concept of a “hero”, noting a profound difference between, on the one hand, the writer’s treatment of a “Person”, capitalized (Chelovek s bol’shoi bukvy), and meaning a full-fledged, creatively gifted and spiritually rich human being, and on the one hand, a “hero”, who was forced to recourse to violence and even murder under conditions of war and revolution. The article draws on Gorky’s works, all of which appeared in the summer of 1923: the essay “Hero” and two short stories – “The Story of the Hero” and “Caramora”. There, a heroic figure, being afraid of life and of other people, due to his egoism and existential loneliness, turns into an “antihero”, a traitor and a murderer. Our analysis of the poetics of these works makes it possible to align it to the poetics of modernism and the avant-garde. The notorious Gorky humanism, writ large during the revolutionary years and immediately after, brought to life works, where the writer protested against the “heroism” of soldiers and revolutionaries ready to kill their own people like enemies. In the 1930s, supporting the class ideology of Bolshevism, Gorky tried to “streamline” his works and wrote a series of “Stories about Heroes”, in which he celebrated the heroes of the Revolution and of the (Russian) Civil War. However, the stories turned out to be uncompelling and unmemorable; the images of the characters – schematic. Despite all his efforts, Gorky has never managed to create any significant works in which the valiant heroic type would be glorified.

Keywords

M. Gorky, the problem of the hero (valiant type), “Hero”, “The Story of the hero”, “Caramora”, poetics of the avant-garde

Acknowledgment

The work was conducted at A.M. Gorky Institute of World literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, with the grant support from the Russian Science Foundation (RSF, project number 21-18-00131)

Received

13.12.2021

Publication date

13.12.2021

Number of characters

38875

Cite

GOST	Primochkina N. “Hero” or “Anti-hero”? (The Problem of the Hero in the Works of M. Gorky in the Early 1920s) // Izvestiia Rossiiskoi akademii nauk. Seriia literatury i iazyka – 2021. – V. 80. – Issue 5 C. 81-91 [Electronic resource]. URL: https://izv-oifn.ru/S241377150017130-6-1 (circulation date: 05.05.2024). DOI: 10.31857/S241377150017130-6
MLA	Primochkina, Natalia N "“Hero” or “Anti-hero”? (The Problem of the Hero in the Works of M. Gorky in the Early 1920s)." Izvestiia Rossiiskoi akademii nauk. Seriia literatury i iazyka 80.5 (2021):81-91. DOI: 10.31857/S241377150017130-6
APA	Primochkina N. (2021). “Hero” or “Anti-hero”? (The Problem of the Hero in the Works of M. Gorky in the Early 1920s). Izvestiia Rossiiskoi akademii nauk. Seriia literatury i iazyka 80(5), pp.81-91 DOI: 10.31857/S241377150017130-6

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