Gorky’s Work and the Rise of Social Realism
Journal Title: Studia Litterarum - Year 2018, Vol 3, Issue 1
Abstract
In 1932, the Communist party ideologists called Maxim Gorky the founder of socialist realism at the behest of Stalin. This tag has turned into an ideological cliché that accompanies the writer’s image even in the present day and does not allow us to see him as a talented artist who sought to create a new method in Russian literature. Believing classical realism to be outdated already at the beginning of the 20th century, Gorky called for such artistic format that would describe human life from the height of futuristic ideals. Starting with the novella Mother (1906), he sought to implement the synthesis of artistic consciousness with socialist ideals that he considered the means of harmonious rearrangement of the new world. In The Tales about Italy and in the autobiographical trilogy (Childhood, My Apprenticeship, and My Universities), Gorky’s dream of the happier future life under socialism manifests itself through the synthesis of realism and romanticism. In his late years, while advocating the method of “social realism” in his essays, Gorky did not write a single fictional work that would incarnate dogmatic principles that were developed already after his death.
Authors and Affiliations
L. A. Spiridonova
Keywords
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- EP ID EP26214
- DOI 10.22455/2500-4247-2018-3-1-212-233
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