Феномен идентичности: культурологический анализ произведений П. Рикера и М. Кундеры

Abstract

Comprehensive study of identity makes observable the very person of researcher and thus switches us from the question ’what?’ onto ‘who?’. Social practices and cultural values find reflection in literature, which serves a perfect source for studying various issues of culture, including the phenomenon of identity. Cultural and philosophical reasonings and ideas of Kundera provide a valuable insight into understanding of multi-faceted nature of identity. Ricoeur, who created the theory of narrative identity, establishes addressing to the literature in terms of the study of human selfhood. Both Kundera and Ricoeur were acutely sensitive towards the issues of modern culture and tried, each in his own way, to solve them — Ricoeur through philosophy, Kundera — by means of the novel, both noting the importance of the fiction in the study of identity. The writer believes that European art and, first and foremost, the novel was instrumental in shaping of man as personality, promoted readers` interest towards the others around and to different views of the world. The notion of narrative identity is, for sure, applicable not only towards the fiction but the culture as a whole, which is woven out of the stories being told and transferred across generations. The works of Ricoeur, on the one hand, act as an important theoretical basis for studying the issue of identity in the work of Kundera and on the other, Kundera`s reflections about the phenomenon of the novel, its structure, functions and poetics may serve a worthy addition and perfect illustration of of Ricoeur`s idea of narrative identity.