БЛУДНЫЙ СЫН В ГОРОДЕ: ИНТЕРПРЕТАТИВНЫЙ ПОТЕНЦИАЛ ОБРАЗА

Abstract

The transformations of the image of the prodigal son in Russian culture show a transition from the naive and idyllic atmosphere of poetry at the beginning of the XXth century to the novel detailing of the late XXh century. The image of the prodigal son as presented by S. S. Averintsev, who criticized any spontaneous fiction about the Gospel, was enriched with a number of details taken from urban imaginary in the XXth-century family novel and Pasternak’s poetry. This new form of religious fiction was justified by the approach to the novel, introduced by M. M. Bakhtin, who opposed the effects of the sublime in the idyll and the effects of the beautiful in the family romance. The story of the prodigal son then explicates these effects, actualizing urban chronotope for a new type of cultural reflection on the Gospel parables.