The god-seeking in Par Lagerkvist's prose

Thematic justification for the article is the growing interest of researchers for so called minor literatures, including Swedish literature, as well as for the philosophical and religious themes in literary texts. The choice of topic is also motivated by the small number of research papers on Pär Lagerkvist’s works in Russian, despite the importance of his legacy for global culture. The goal of the article is to analyze the motif of god-seeking in Pär Lagerkvist’s prose and its transformation throughout his body of work. In the article the following conclusions are drawn: The motif of God-seeking, which is linked to the search for the truth and answers to eternal questions, plays an important role in P. Lagerkvist’s works, and its transformation reflects the evolution of his religious and philosophical views. While in the beginning of his literary career Lagerkvist thought it possible to give answers to eternal questions, later in his life searching and doubt themselves take on greater and greater importance and are interpreted as the human condition. The article offers a classification of the motif of god-seeking in relation to P. Lagerkvist’s body of work: outer (“The Eternal Smile”, “The Hangman”) and inner manifestations (“Barabbas”, “Guest of Reality”). In relation to the motif of god-seeking an especial importance of the figure of Jesus Christ, who symbolizes the humanistic and Christian ideal, is noted as one of the key elements of P. Lagerkvist’s poetic style.