TURGENEV, GOGOL AND “NATURAL SCHOOL”

Abstract

The article is devoted to the problem of correlation of Turgenev and Gogol's creativity in the context of the aesthetic program of the “natural school”. The issue of the nature of Gogol's influence on Turgenev is still debatable, as well as the issue of the involvement of both writers in the “natural school”. Belinsky's definition of the “natural school”, on the one hand, was based on limited literary material, on the other - was extremely broad and as a result is equally suited to the work of such different authors as Gogol, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Goncharov, etc. An analysis of Turgenev's work suggests that, having paid tribute to the principles of “physiological” essay in his early dramatic experiments, already in the “Hunter's notes” Turgenev demonstrates a fundamentally new artistic strategy, which is fully manifested in his novels. Turgenev's creativity developed not within the framework of the “natural school” in the narrow meaning of this concept and not in the mainstream of Gogol's grotesque realism, which in turn does not fit into the canons set by the “physiological essay” of the 40s.