Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences
of the Russian Academy of Sciences
LITERATUROVEDCHESKII
ZHURNAL
The Journal of Literary History and Theory
Peer-reviewed Academic Journal

F. KAFKA’S “ABSURDISM” IN THE ARTISTIC CONSCIOUSNESS OF A.A. AKHMATOVA

Sergei A. Shul’ts, DSc in Philology, Independent Researcher, Rostov-on-Don, Russia. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3429-6714

Abstract

What Kafka only foresaw in his tragic grotesque, Akhmatova could contemplate in immediate reality. Akhmatova’s tragic grotesque is less obvious, but in many of her texts (primarily in “Poem without a Hero,” “Northern Elegies,” “Enuma Elish”) it cannot be ignored. From Kafka’s side the subject of criticism was not only the socio-political foundations of the state and society, but also interpersonal communication. Kafka anticipated the widespread phenomenon of “absurdism,” which he portrayed through the tuning fork of the author’s participation in each character. Akhmatova viewed Kafka primarily through an existential / existentialist prism, including attention to the category of guilt and the institution of court. Despite the anthropological catastrophe of the epoch, Akhmatova – like Kafka – retains faith in man: namely in man, but to a lesser extent in the external world around him.

Keywords

Kafka; Akhmatova; absurdism; category of guilt; artistic anthropology.

Recieved

12.02.2024

Accepted

10.03.2024

For citation

Shul’ts, S.A. “F. Kafka’s ‘Absurdism’ in the Artistic Consciousness of A.A. Аkhmatova”. Literaturovedcheskii zhurnal, no. 2(64), 2024, pp. 43–69. (In Russ.)

DOI: 10.31249/litzhur/2024.64.03

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