Method of “detachment” in Leo Tolstoy’s trilogy “Detstvo”, “Otrochestvo”, “Yunost”

Abstract

The article examines the method of “detachment” in Leo Tolstoy’s trilogy “Childhood”, “Boyhood” and “Youth” (“Detstvo”, “Otrochestvo” and “Yunost’”) as one of the theoretical concepts characteristic of Tolstoy’s entire creative work. This method first appeared in the works of Russian formalists R. Yakobson and V. Shklovsky who made their contributions to the literary theory. Their imagery system perception of a literary work is based on the conviction that in fiction language is removed from the ordinary automatic perception. As the formalists believe, the goal of art is to give a sense of a thing as vision, not as recognition. The creation of art should bring forth the truth about existence. This “emergence of truth” (a term coined by M. Heidegger) is conceivable only on the basis of creation, i.e., on the basis of the “making” of a literary work. Tolstoy’s “strange” perception of the material world and ordinary phenomena speaks not of recognition, but of sensitivity, when one sees a particular object or a phenomenon for the first time. The method of “detachment”, to which Tolstoy came through his own artistic sense, allows one to grasp the actual deep essence of ordinary objects and phenomena within the author’s conception of his work. Thus, an ordinary object (a flapper), seen by the author with a “strange” perception of things, provides the impetus for the formation of an artistic creation about the world of childhood, boy-hood and youth.