V.P. Burenin and his literary-critical strategy at the turn of the 19th - 20th centuries: polemic with “new art” (notes on the problem)

The article is devoted to the examination of the strategy of the famous literary critic of conservative stream Victor Petrovich Burenin (1841-1926) during his cooperation with the newspaper “Novoye Vremya” (New Times), published by A.S. Suvorin. The material for the study of the chief techniques used by Burenin and his position in relation to the “new art” of the turn of the 19th - 20th centuries is offered to consider the polemic which centered around D.S. Merezhkovsky’s public lecture “On the Reasons for the Decline and the New Trends in Contemporary Russian Literature”, published as a boo; in 1893. Typologization, including the grouping of the object of criticism into a series of names which in Burenin’s texts already have a certain semantic field assigned to them (for example, he compared Merezhkovsky to S.Ya. Nadson with his “claims” to be a “genius”, beyond the reach of both authors for him), are among the methods typical of Burenin’s strategy. This analysis of the polemical remarks (with the participation of another key contributor, Akim Volynsky) enables us to see a point of convergence that seems impossible for the opponents: the goal of the “truthfulness” of art, understood, however, in quite different ways by Burenin and his “cynical realism” and by Merezhkovsky. At the same time, in this context, an unexpected similarity emerges in their confrontation as spokesmen of different aesthetic positions. The presented review offers an insight into the participants of the polemic, not only in their own remarks, but also in their mutual reflections, which offers a broader perception of their positions.