Features of the artistic embodiment of the image of Opta’s Hermitage Monastery in the essay “K.G.A. Sederholm, Father Clement, hieromonk of Opta’s Hermitage” by Konstantin Leontiev

Abstract

The article discusses the features of the artistic embodiment of the image of Opta’s Hermitage Monastery in the essay “K.G.A. Sederholm, Father Clement, hieromonk of Opta's Hermitage” by Konstantin Leontiev. It is shown that the image of Opta’s Hermitage, created in Konstantin Leontiev’s essay, is multifaceted. Its structure includes a description of the monastery and the nature surrounding it, as well as images of monks that form the artistic anthropology of the work. The image of Father Clement is necessary to mention. The article notes that the author's attitude to Opta’s Hermitage, his belief in the monastery’s exceptional spiritual role for the Orthodox world is artistically embodied, in particular, in the lexical content of the essay. In addition, the work compares the artistic embodiment of the image of Optina Hermitage in Konstantin Leontiev’s essay and in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment. It allows us to conclude that Fyodor Dostoevsky, endowing the image of Opta’s Hermitage with a sacred meaning, deprives it of the picturesqueness and poetry present in Konstantin Leontiev’s essay. The article concludes that Konstantin Leontiev’s essay to a certain extent approaches the essay genre. It is of special, syncretic nature and is of value not only in terms of ideological and philosophical content, but also as an original work of art reflecting the aesthetic views of the writer, his religious quest and philosophical views. The image of Opta’s Hermitage created by Konstantin Leontiev can be included in a number of key topoi that determine the self-awareness of Russian literature.