Platonic dialogue in The Monologues of an Old Enthusiast by Akim Volynsky

Abstract

This article studies the poetics of the literary critic and philosopher Akim Volynsky, who employs the technique of Platonic dialogue in his critical and artistic criticism articles. The schol arly issue is that Volynsky is primarily regarded as a critic rather than a philosopher, thus the dia logical element in his writing is overlooked, leading to the misinterpretation of meaning. The main protagonists of the ideas that he will develop throughout his life are first introduced in his Monologues of an Old Enthusiast. It is crucial to consider how these characters of protagonists evolve in various writings of Volynsky and how they maintain their original meanings or undergo transformation under the influence of other ideas. The analysis helps identify a durable, unchang ing core of ideas presented in a dialogical form in Volynsky’s works over a thirty-year period. For example, the standpoint of Volynsky, as a Jewish writer, has been established in foreign liter ary studies. His commitment to the ideas of the early Renaissance (the so-called Byzantism), however, leads him to a complex dialogue with Orthodoxy and an analysis of the theme of the “damage” to the soul of European man, as well as various art forms associated with this process.