Dreams in L. N. Tolstoy’s Short Story «Master and Man»: from «life for yourself» to «life for others»

The relevance of the study is due to the importance of “Blizzard” dreams and dreamy insights suggested by the snowstorm in the artistic system of L. Tolstoy and Russian literature of the XIX century as a whole. On the material of the story “Master and Man” were considered the main strategy of existential behavior of the characters. The truth of the chosen path is verified by the test of the winter element and the collision with death, and the ability to spiritual transformation is directly related to the ability to interpret the signs of fate that are in dreams. In the course of the study it was found that the epistemological concept of L. Tolstoy is reflected in the dreams of the characters. The subject of the study in the article are the dreams of the characters of the story of Leo Tolstoy, which illustrate the process of finding the truth. Genesis Epiphany occurs in a dream and is the result of a unique process of knowledge presented in the works of Leo Tolstoy - identification with others. Through the identification of the owner with the employee, it becomes possible to move from a false life “for oneself” to a life “for others” and approach the true Master of being. The necessary context is represented by the dreams of the characters of the works of L. Tolstoy and other writers that make up the «Blizzard» text of Russian literature. In the course of the study, structural-semiotic, mythopoetic, comparative-historical methods were applied, as well as methods of motivational analysis were used. It seems promising to further study the connection of dreams with a Blizzard in the space of Russian literature, allowing to penetrate into the artistic anthropology of writers.

«Хозяин и работник», L. Tolstoy, a dream, “Master and Man”, the snowstorm, life, death, faith, fate, artistic anthropology

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