Two centuries of the Russian classics

2686-7494

IWL RAS

https://doi.org/10.22455/2686-7494-2025-7-2-176-199

Research Article

Articles

“Homeric” in The Cossacks by L. N. Tolstoy

Lyubov Ye. Kocheshkova red@rusklassika.ru

25 06 2025

7 2 176 199

L. N. Tolstoy Homer Homeric Achilles’ shield The Cossacks artistic method realism oppositions

2026

The article examines the influence of the Homeric tradition on Tolstoy’s artistic method in the 1860s. The author of the article comprehends the role of the “Homeric” in the novel The Cossacks, analyzing various aspects of Tolstoy’s work, its ideological structure, type of description, and plot and fabula level. The article examines the episode of the Iliad describing the Shield of Achilles, which is associated with the key oppositions in the novel The Cossacks, the relations between the elements of the oppositions, the structure of comparisons, and the method of constructing interconnected images and descriptions. Tolstoy, relying on the Homeric epic, more accurately defined the subject of the image in the novel The Cossacks and identified a set of essential, fundamental situations of human life, which together create the image of a holistic being.

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