Ahead of Leo Tolstoy: Tolstoy’s Themes and Tolstoy’s “Tone” in the Early Prose of Ivan Bunin

Abstract

Many researchers, including the author of this article, repeatedly examine the influence of Leo Tolstoy on Ivan Bunin’s works. The article significantly expands the traditional view, for the first time including within the sphere of this influence Bunin’s earliest prose, starting with the first two published stories. The research demonstrates the process of “being ahead of Tolstoy”: it means that Bunin writes stories on some characteristically Tolstoy’s topics a little earlier than Tolstoy himself and then reads with delight what Tolstoy wrote on the same matter. “Being ahead” represents a crucial moment in Bunin’s awareness of his creative affinity with Tolstoy. The second part of the article examines Bunin’s use of Tolstoy’s “tone” in some of his works, as well as the use of Tolstoy’s theme and the theme of Tolstoyism in early stories as a technique for actualizing dialogues, as well as a moral assessment of characters. The article demonstrates that Tolstoy’s influence on Bunin’s prose began with the first opuses and continued throughout all his early work.

Keywords

• bunin
• early works
• leo tolstoy
• poetics
• literary influence