T. Yu. Kolyagina
Surgut State Pedagogical University, Surgut, Russian Federation
The cycle of “Childish Things” stories by Valery Larbaud in the light of F. M. Dostoevsky’s concept of childhood
Abstract: For the first time in literary studies the following article is proposed to consider the cycle of stories by Valery Larbaud “Childish Things” (“Enfantines”) through the prism of F. M. Dostoevsky’s artistic and philosophical concept of childhood. The aim of the work is to identify and analyze the common dominant features of the concept of childhood inherent to the French decadent Valery Larbaud and the Russian classic Dostoevsky. The study is based on a comparative approach. The motives of loneliness of a teenager on the way to adulthood, represented in the works of these writers, and the spiritual gap between children and adults are analyzed. The conclusion is made about the continuity of the authors in understanding the inner world of a child, the rejection to idealize childhood though endowing it with sacred features. The results of the study can be used both in the further study of V. Larbaud’s cycle “Childish Things”, and in the development of the childhood themes in Russian and foreign literature; it can also be used in the compilation of comments and reference publications.
Keywords: Valery Larbaud, Fyodor Dostoevsky, the concept of childhood, images of childhood, a cycle of stories, Enfantines.
Paper submitted: December 6, 2021.
For citation: Kolyagina T. Yu. (2022). The cycle of “Childish Things” stories by Valery Larbaud in the light of F. M. Dostoevsky’s concept of childhood. Russian Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 31–37. DOI: 10.17238/ issn1998-5320.2022.16.2.4.
