A сharacterological function of the liturgical text in the novel “The ways of heaven” by I. Shmelev

The article focuses upon the liturgical text in Ivan Shmelev’s novel “The Ways of Heaven” and its characterological function as a major component of ethnopoetics. The author himself classifies his novel as “spiritual” and peculiarities of this genre find expression in the principles of creation of the characters capable of self-evolution, inherent in the literature of psychological realism. The most relevant in the novel’s hierarchy of determinants is a “spiritual determinism” where the participation of Divine Providence in development of the plot and heroes’ characters becomes essencial. Liturgical quotations remain inseparably related to the images of the main characters throughout the whole novel, referring to different stages of their spiritual paths. More significantly, quotations are actively involved in the characters’ internal decision-making process as well as in their formation. A remarkable variety of theological meanings shapes the spiritual space of the novel and of the protagonists, frequently serving as a means of characterization. Testifying to the author’s Orthodox worldview, heroes’ “ways of heaven”, regarded in soteriological terms, are of two types: the one of discovering Christ (the hero) and the other one of following Christ (the heroine). The detailed analysis of the key liturgical quotations in their relation to Victor Alexeevich and Daria Koroleva (the protagonists) revealed a particular significance of the liturgical quotations in structuring the heroes’ inner space. We believe it to be Ivan Shmelev’s artistic discovery and a testimony to a “new aesthetics”, defined by a spiritual quest of the author himself.