Existential Paradigm of Artistic Consciousness: Russian Literature of the XIX Century as a Carrier of Ideas of Religious Existentialism

Abstract

Based on the theoretical developments of the scientific philological school of the Ural Federal University (UrFU), the article analyzes the category of "artistic consciousness" and identifies an existential paradigm within this category. Special attention is paid to tracing the history of the study of the category "artistic consciousness" by UrFU scientists from the Soviet period to our time. The author of the article explores the origins of existentialism using the examples of writers and philosophers of the XIX century. As existential writers and philosophers of the XIX century, S. Kierkegaard, A. Schopenhauer, F. Nietzsche are represented among Western European thinkers and M. Lermontov, F. Tyutchev, F. Dostoevsky, L. Tolstoy, A. Chekhov are among Russian writers. The author of the article comes to the conclusion that the Russian literature of the XIX century is the bearer of unique ideas of religious existentialism. The author assumes the existence of an existential type of artistic consciousness, considered as a type of artistic and aesthetic interaction of a person with the world, expressed in artistic creativity, and suggests that in the twentieth century the existential consciousness of a free person who found himself in a world where "God died" fell into an enchanted circle of absurdity. The opposite approach, considering human freedom as a gift from God, suggests using it in the name of creative improvement. Such a path leads to harmony with God, elevating the human creator to the role of a co-author of Divine creativity.