The motif of temptation in the works of L. M. Leonov in the 1920s

The article analyzes the motif of temptation, which goes back to the texts of the Holy Scriptures, in the early novels of L. M. Leonov, representing the combination of the symbolic aesthetics and the completion of social realistic discourse. The components of the biblical story plot about the Temptation of Christ in the desert were identified, analyzed and compared with their version in L. M. Leonov’s texts using the structural-typological method and the method of motif analysis. The emphasis is on the allomotives of temptation by pride and power and on the related motives of falling/flight, the images of the abyss and the demon-tempter. In the process of analysis, the internal connections of the motif in question with other biblical stories (e.g., the Tower of Babel, christening, the prodigal son) were revealed, which allows us to assess the specifics of the artistic concept. As a result, despite the writer’s obvious reliance on the biblical story through indirect and partial quoting and repetition of actions, the author largely deviates from the very tone of religious discourse, replacing it with an ironic one, which is carried out using travesty, hyperbolization and grotesque. However, a number of the author’s artistic innovations in the treatment of the Holy Scripture plots still retains a connection with the original source, as a result of which the text is read and recognized by a knowledgeable reader through allusions, reminiscences and variations on the theme of the pretext. All of the above becomes a guide to one of the key ideas in Leonov’s work - the idea of cognition.