Anthology pro et contra as the most effective method of cultural cognition of the phenomenon of Athanasius Fet

Abstract

We offer a detailed review of the recently published anthology “A.A. FET: PRO ET CONTRA”, created by the famous researcher of the spirituality of Russian poetry T.A. Koshemchuk. The article actualizes the anthology as a significant achievement of Russian science on the way to overcoming historical unrighteousness in relation to the great Russian poet Afanasy Fet, who is still misunderstood in all the depth of his specialness and therefore underestimated. The new anthological reading of Fet is shown as the reduction of polemical flows about the poet to the desired effect of heuristic updating of his image. The work reveals the exceptional productivity of the comparative method pro et contra in combination with the depth and accuracy of the concept of the creator of the anthology for comprehending the uniqueness of the worldview of A.A. Fet, revealing the phenomenon of his “spiritual personality”, awareness of his “moral aristocracy”, designating the defining features of his poetics — “ethereal breath of thought”, “freely floating existence of meaning in sounds”. The author of the article nominates the reviewed anthology as an opening for readers of an unmistakable path of personal approach to the Fetal mystery.