Evgeniya G. Nikolaeva, PhD in Philology, Associate Professor, Department of Literature and Linguistics, Moscow State Institute of Culture, Bibliotechnaya Street, 7, 141406, Khimki, Moscow region, Russia; Leading Editor, Periodicals Department, Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Nakhimovsky Avenue, 51/21, 117418, Moscow, Russia.
The paper is devoted to the analysis of two poems by Lev Loseff on the theme of death (“At the Clinic” and “From Childhood”) in their relationship with the late works of Leo Tolstoy (“Diary of a Lunatic” and “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”), which reveal the same theme. The analysis allows us to see, on the one hand, a profound difference between the perception of a dramatic life situation (fatal illness) by Loseffʼs lyrical hero and Tolstoy’s characters, and on the other hand, the echo of Loseffʼs texts with Tolstoyʼs at the level of not only direct reference (the poem “From Childhood” to “Diary of a Lunatic”), but also poetics (repeated repetition of the same key words in the poem “At the Clinic” as in the story “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”) and leads to the conclusion that the Tolstoyʼs context contributes to the deepening and expansion of the artistic potential of the analyzed texts of Loseff.
Lev Loseff; Lev Tolstoy; death; horror; nightmare; easy lightness.
25.04.2025
20.05.2025
Nikolaeva, E.G. “Lev Loseff and Lev Tolstoy (On the Theme of Death)”. Literaturovedcheskii zhurnal, no. 3(69), 2025, pp. 49–67. (In Russ.)
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