And they All Ate and Were Satisfied: Review of the Book “Abundance and Asceticism in Russian Literature”

Abstract

The review provides an overview of scientific works included in the collection of articles “Abundance and Asceticism in Russian Literature.” Based on the definitions of “asceticism” and “abundance” proposed by the authors, a parallel is drawn with the binary opposition “a lot – little”, the differences from it are shown according to the principle of procedurality. Considerable attention is paid to the central article of the collection, written by M. Epstein; such parameters as the choice of genre, innovation (classification of types of asceticism), and the verifiability of the hypothesis are assessed. Based on this analysis, conclusions are drawn about the merits and demerits of Epstein’s concept. Also noted are the original works of K. Zehnder, D. Uffelmann, whose authors correlate the concept of canonical asceticism with the literary experiences of the 19th and 20th centuries, but do not extrapolate it to all phenomena associated with the rejection of something. The articles on the phenomenon of asceticism in poetry, in prose of the XX–XXI centuries are briefly characterized. An analysis of the collection’s materials allows one to argue with the idea of the immanence of asceticism for Russian culture and, on the contrary, to make sure of the non-national nature of the phenomenon under study.

Keywords

• asceticism
• abundance
• m. epstein
• national character
• russian literature