Philosophical Comprehension of Space in the Prose of Ivan Bunin

Abstract

The article, addressing the prose of Ivan Bunin, examines the phenomenon of place - a point of geographical space - as a source of memory. It has been suggested that Bunin’s works written in exile can be analyzed, on the one hand, from the perspective of memory studies and, on the other hand, from the perspective of philosophical area studies. A special object of study is the “double chronotope” - the result of spontaneous work of a specific kind of memory - memory-imagination, or memogination . In particular, with this approach, the image of Paris of the 19 th century is considered. Thus, Paris is the city that inherited a number of features of “Paris, the capital of the nineteenth century” (W. Benjamin), but is already encompassed by the spirit of Modernity and seen through the eyes of an émigré , the Russian European. Bunin’s method for dealing with memory is considered in the framework of Paul Ricraur’s theory and is described by the term évocation , proposed by the philosopher. The article also presents an analysis of the space in Bunin’s prose using the concept of “places of memory” ( lieux de mémoire ) developed by the modern French historian Pierre Nora. In parallel with the question of the specificity of space in Bunin’s interpretation, a related theme of time in his prose of the period of emigration is touched upon. It is assumed that the images of Russia, addressed by the writer, are timeless in nature, as their history is interrupted by the change of eras due to the Russian revolution and thus rendered beyond the limits of the real history. The emphasis is on the phenomenon of “rediscovery” of the past, which in Bunin’s works is accomplished by mapping in detail a place against the background of a massive historical rupture. In this regard, the experience of individual memory-imagination is analyzed as an example of historical memory, which has a universalizing character.