Ideas About National Identity In Russian Literary Review, Historical And Literary Discourses Of The 19th – Early 20th Century

This article analyses the evolution of literary reflections among the representatives of the 19th-early 20th-century trends and schools where ideas on national literature distinctness were formed. The study specifies both an invariant of the notions of national literature identity and individual variations that did not find further development in literary self-awareness. The essays of the 1870-80s suggest that there was formed an image of the original literature opposed to European literature. A new impetus to the problem of national identity in literature was attached to the era of the Silver Age; however, the analysis of the literary review, historical and literary discourses of the turn of the century leads to the conclusion that it was in this era that the ideology of literary centrism was further strengthened, and the exclusive status of Russian literature in culture received detailed reflection.