From Philosophy to Prose. Early Pasternak

In his youth, Pasternak exhibited a deep interest in philosophy, particularly in neo-Kantianism. Elena Glazova's book is the first comprehensive study dedicated to the influence of these pursuits on the early prose of the writer. The author boldly revises R.... Jakobson's idea of Pasternak's prevailing metonymy and shows how, reflecting the writer's philosophical knowledge, metaphors form the semantic network of his prose — this manifests itself in the careful construction of images of time and space, light and darkness, the finite and the infinite. Philosophical ideas are transformed into ways of perceiving the world, into a refined impressionistic self-reflection that distinguishes Pasternak among his contemporaries — symbolists, acmeists, and futurists. Combining the detail of philological analysis and the system of philosophical generalization, this study is addressed to all readers interested in an integrative approach to Pasternak's work and the intellectual and artistic quests of his era.