The Radiance of Enlightenment in the Prose of E.- E. Schmitt

This article explores a pressing issue in literary studies: literary tradition, the significance of which lies in reviving the “old” through searching for the “living” and new within it. The problem of the continuity of experience in contemporary art is a pressing one and is considered one of the laws of literary development. Moreover, it concerns both researchers and authors themselves. In this regard, the work of E.-E. Schmitt is of particular interest. Although he only partially fits into the postmodern paradigm, he did not neglect creative experimentation in the field of literary form. Schmitt himself considers himself a follower of the French Enlightenment, and therefore, in his texts, he frequently draws on the literary experience of Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Diderot. The innovative nature of the literary work of the Enlightenment philosophers is noted, particularly the philosophical novella and the epistolary novel as universal genres for the presentation of socially significant philosophical ideas. The artistic device of “estrangement”, often employed by Enlightenment figures such as Voltaire and Montesquieu, the appeal to Eastern themes, and the actualization of the cultural and philosophical “East-West” problem, as well as the motif of wandering/journey, are widely present in Schmitt's works. Our goal was to identify Enlightenment traditions in the genre of E.-E. Schmitt's work, using the novels “Ulysses of Baghdad” and “Oscar and the Pink Lady” as examples. Ulysses of Baghdad is comparable to Voltaire's philosophical novella Candide, or Optimism” and, to some extent, to Montesquieu's “Persian Letters”, while “Oscar and the Pink Lady, one of Schmitt's most complex works in terms of genre, demonstrates the epistolary tradition.