The Literary Criticism Of Merezhkovsky

Merezhkovsky’s literary criticism received great attention from his contemporary writers since his appearance.From the end of the 19 th century to the beginning of the20 th century,’ Melezhkovsky’s literary criticism was the focus of the literary world.Among Merezhkovsky’s criticism,"on the causes of the decline of contemporary Russian literature and new schools","Pushkin","Gogol and ghosts","Leo Tolstoy and Dostoevsky",and other critical works are widely acclaimed.His criticism of the writers,such as Pushkin,Gogol,Tolstoy,and Dostoevsky,not only broke through the inherent tradition of criticism in the 19 th century but also created a method of symbolism criticism and religious philosophy criticism centered on the "new Christian consciousness".Melezhkovsky’s symbolism is full of the inherent religious mysticism tendencies of the Russian nation and pure inner,intuitive,and mysticism understanding of the deep content of the world.Melezhkovsky first went deep into the source of human culture through the "symbol".He hoped to find the eternal value of human culture on the wheel of history and inspire the contemporary people to find their lost spiritual home.Melezhkovsky believed that Russian literature is in a "decadent" period,which forboded the birth of a new school.In opposition to positivism and utilitarianism,Melezhkovsky proposed a "subjective—artistic criticism approach",which connects the life,creation,and religious thought of the writers into an undivided one,overcomes the opposition between " man " and "artist",and forms a unified creative personality.The idea is also known as "life creative thought".At the same time,Melezhkovsky developed the "mysterious content" into "religious thought",trying to explore a way to save Russian society by combining religious circles and secular intellectuals.The exploration of "new Christian consciousness" reflected the Russian expectation of the come of holy spirits.Because of the profound religious nature of Russian philosophy,the religious philosophy conference participants tried to find the integration of Christ with the world or the church with real life.Melezhkovsky’s writings on Pushkin,Gogol,Tolstoy,and Dostoevsky showed a basic pattern of his literary criticism,which is a method of literary criticism,combining the author’s life and the content of his work,offering a panoramic view of multiple details,understanding intuitively,and following a religious principle.Melezhkovsky gave Pushkin a high evaluation.He thought that the "spirit of harmony" reflected in Pushkin’s works is the reason for the thought on the "decline" of Russian literature at the moment,the signpost for Russian literature to find a direction,and the source of the great creativity of the Russian people in the future.Secondly,Melezhkovsky affirmed Gogol’s creative "mysticism" tendency.He thought that Gogol completed the change of Russian spirit from art to religion and from "meditation" to "action" and created a "new criticism" led by "new religious consciousness".Through the creation of two masters,Dostoevsky and Tolstoy,Melezhkovsky wanted to examine the soul of the spokesperson for the modern national spirit of Russia,reveal the problems faced by modern Russian religious thought,and explore the deep religious-philosophical meaning of these problems in the modern context.As the first and most accomplished New School of literature in the Silver Age,its theoretical criticism has the closest relationship with the religious and cultural criticism.Almost all symbolism writers and poets have left their own legacy of theoretical criticism,while unlike the professional critics of the Silver Age,their literary criticism activities are mostly the result of rational thinking in connection with their own creative practice.The overall achievements of symbolism in theoretical criticism occupy a prominent position,as its contribution in the field of creation in the whole literature of the Silver Age.