Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences / Interpretation of the “Mediocre” Hero in the Novels by Ivan Goncharov and Leo Tolstoy

Full text (.pdf)
Issue
Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences. 2018 11 (3)
Authors
Shevchugova, Ekaterina I.
Contact information
Shevchugova, Ekaterina I.: Siberian Federal University 79 Svobodny, Krasnoyarsk, 660041, Russia; e.pinzhenina@gmail.com
Keywords
Ivan Goncharov; Leo Tolstoy; mediation; typology of characters; “mediocre” hero
Abstract

The article investigates the identification and characterization of the “mediocre” hero in the novel trilogy by Ivan Goncharov and the novel-epopee ‘War and Peace’ by Leo Tolstoy. The research method is typological. The theoretical basis of the research includes the investigations by V. Markovich and A. Davydov. The article describes similar typologies of characters in Goncharov’s and Tolstoy’s novels. The terminal points of typology are presented by the impersonal type of characters (which have no outstanding features: Alekseev, Ayanov, Karataev) and the excessive type of characters (they have one or more of outstanding features; they are Raysky, Natasha, Andrey Bolkonsky). In the field of mediation there is the “mediocre” hero: a special type of personality characterized by evenness, calmness, moderate expression of emotions, restraint actions. But the “mediocre” hero in Goncharov’s novels is able to overcome the boundaries of his type occasionally going beyond the usual level of feeling (Stoltz and Olga Ilyinskaya, Oblomov, Tushyn), and the “mediocre” hero in Tolstoy’s works is not able to do it (Nikolai Rostov)

Pages
445-457
Paper at repository of SibFU
https://elib.sfu-kras.ru/handle/2311/70755

Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).

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