What does it mean to be a Jew?.. : B. L. Pasternak’s «Jewish Question»

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Abstract

The article deals with the «Jewish question» in the life and art of B. L. Pasternak. Following the analysis of epistolary and literary evidence, an assumption is made concerning the specific ambivalent role of the poet’s Jewish origins in his automythology. On the one hand, the feeling of being excluded from the surrounding Christian universe is embedded in Pasternak’s ideas about art and the role of the artist as one of the obstacles within the physical, deterministic world that calls for a creative overcoming. On the other hand, the ancestral links to the ancient Jewish tradition, the Bible and its characters, is perceived by the poet as a cultural asset.

About the authors

G. V. Kunitsyn

National Research University Higher School of Economics

Email: georg2399@yandex.ru
Moscow

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