Distinctive National Traits as Highlighted in the Dark Avenues by Ivan A. Bunin

Abstract

The essay highlights traditions, customs, relationships, morals and manners of the Asians and the Europeans as represented in Ivan Bunin’s famous collection Dark Avenues. This article is an attempt to demonstrate the specificity of Bunin’s vision of national mentality shaped both by national identity and by the place where a person belongs to, be it a civilized urban space or a countryside. Russian mentality reveals itself to the fullest when explored against the background of the Russian estate house that became a spiritual home for Bunin in emigration. Bunin discloses the ambiguity of the Russian national character that combines spirituality with vulgarity, empathy and compassion with unrestrained craving for living life to its fullest each day and lack of discipline. The impetuous nature of the Russians is opposed to the more reserved character of other nations. Different attitudes to life and death disclose different cultural codes affected by Catholic and Orthodox traditions. In his ontology of love, Bunin explores, with deep interest, the dark avenues of the human soul, beamed through the national mentality.

Keywords

• i.a. bunin
• the book dark avenues
• national identity
• cultural code
• national cultures
• estate
• nature
• love
• memory
• eternity.