The article considers the reception of Germany in the context of M. Prishvin‘s creative heritage permeated with reflections on German philosophy, music, poetry and everyday culture. In the autobiographical novel the image of Germany is revealed through the perception of a character comparing Germany and Russia and leitmotifs. The motivation ensures the integrity of the writer‘s artistic word. This peculiarity of Prishvin‘s poetics is reflected in the «Kashcheyev Chain», where he also experienced a great Wagner‘s influence. The composer had created the technique of leitmotifs in his operas. Prishvin was well aware of the philosophical teachings of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, but he experienced the greatest impact of «the philosophy of life», especially through Nietzsche‘s and Simmel‘s ideas. Nietzsche‘s books revealed «the real knowledge» to the character of the «Kashcheyev Chain», brightly illuminating the world space. Prishvin reflected on Nietzsche‘s ideas throughout his creative life; to him Nietzsche was primarily an artist of words and a great philosopher, whose teaching «gives impetus to art». The German philosophy and culture had a decisive influence on the formation of Prishvin‘s philosophical and aesthetic views, but Simmel‘s concept of understanding as the relationship of one spirit to another, supplemented by acts of self-consciousness that ensure the knowledge of oneself as another, was especially significant for his artistic thinking. «Internal dialogues» with fellow writers, philosophers, religious thinkers and scientists, contemporaries and predecessors are very characterristic of Prishvin; he conducted them in order to determine his own creative behavior.
Reference to article:
Kholodova Z. Ya. The reception of Germany in M. Prishvin’s supertext // Ivanovo State University Bulletin. Series «The Humanities». 2021. No.2. P. 36-46.