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Abstract: The life and creative activity of the remarkable Russian writer N. S. Leskov (1831–1895) have not left indifferent either his contemporaries or his literary followers. The ambiguous personality of the “overlooked genius” has always been a subject of great interest to philologists, cultural historians and the church. The writer’s artistic talents are known to his readers in connection with the syllabus works “Levsha”, “The Enchanted Wanderer”, and “The Soborians”. However, his biography, epitomizing the moral disputes and searches of the Russian intelligentsia of the 19th century, has not been amply rethought yet. Modern literary criticism uses an up-to-date tool kit that makes it possible to see and analyze the path and literary experiments of Leskov in the context of historical and spiritual events of that difficult era in a new light. The author of the article sets the task to describe the phenomenon of the writer in Russian literature, to show the specific features of his “artistic philologism”, and to identify and explain the properties of Leskov’s phenomenality through the prism of the judgments of literary critics and researchers. The discussion of Leskov’s personality correlates with the cultural-historical events of his time and personal motives. The author notes the difficult path of the writer’s entry into literary circles, his dissimilarity and stylistic eccentricities. It is argued that the image of Leskov is multidimensional and has not yet been fully explored in terms of understanding his artistic, aesthetic and verbal discoveries. The article allows modern researchers to read the text of the writer with all his revelations and artistic insights, spiritual torments and life contradictions. The article highlights and comments on the controversial points in the interpretation of his artistic creative activity. Drawing on the extensive body of literary critical and memoir literature, the author of the article summarizes the signs of Leskov’s phenomenality. In this sense the article is of interest as an experience of analyzing the image of a writer in its dynamics, psychological reflection and special literary aesthetics. It is emphasized that the verbal “anomalies” of Leskov’s creative work reflect a life filled with social collisions, adventures and spiritual-moral pursuits. The author of the article believes that it is necessary to “restore” the personality of Leskov in the literary studies of the 21st century and to search for new approaches to the assessment and analysis of the “overlooked genius”.

About the author(s) :

Oleg V. Nikitin

Petrozavodsk State University (Petrozavodsk, Russia)

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2815-6691

Publication Timeline:

Date of receipt: 23.12.2024; date of publication: 28.03.2025

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