The opposition of temporary and eternal in Boris Pasternak's “Balzac” (the threat of value erosion revisited)

Building on Boris Pasternak’s poem “Balzac” (1927) the article looks at the ways of opposing the threat of value system erosion in Russian speaking society. The poem, which explores the subject of the ideal in literature, addresses the issue of values that ought to provide philosophical foundations for creative writing and for culture at large. The authors hold that Boris Pasternak conveys his understanding of value through implicit juxtaposition of two ontologically disparate categories - “temporary” and “eternal”. The decline in status of fundamental societal values is depicted as a result of the loss of a sense of the eternal good, on the one hand, and the “temporary” becoming the sole mode of existence, on the other. We argue that making extensive use of vivid original metaphors the poet defines the chronotope of Balzac’s novels as an overwhelming dominance of devalued timeliness that heads towards existential void. The latter is opposed by the concept of holistic eternity that is framed by numerous biblical allusions which shape the poem’s vertical context. Transferring poetic images from the literal, objective plane to the figurative, parabolic one, biblical allusions relate “Balzac” and the reality it presents to timeless spiritual values. A conclusion is drawn that it is the pursuit of absolute eternal value that Boris Pasternak believes will help confront the increasing threats of cultural impoverishment and growing spiritual vacuum in the modern world of social atomism and chaotic collective consciousness.