The problem of visual dominant in Russian literature

The problem of the visual dominant of Russian culture as a whole is posed. Critical evaluations by Russian philosophers of the 20th century of the Western "revivalist culture" are analyzed, which coincide with the criticism of the "illusionism" of painting corresponding to the subjectivism of the modern man. The author of the article comes to the conclusion that the dominant of Russian literature is the iconic beginning, which goes back to the icon, to the Original Image. However, in the Russian literature of the 20th century, a "cultural explosion" takes place, after which the iconic beginning loses the position of the cultural dominant: at that time, different aesthetic orientations co-exist.