Tolstoy's (auto)biographicality

Sažetak

The object of the present study is to examine specific relations between the(auto)biographicality which appears in Lev Tolstoy’s early writings and the self-analysing subject in the autobiographical text, which may be used as a code for the interpretation of his later works. The organizing force that underlies the structure of his mature works can also be found in its earliest beginning in Tolstoy’s early writings . It includes some basic features such as parallel and counterpunctual devices of construction, Tolstoy’s intention to present situations in their many-sidedness and describe phenomena in their dialectic development from being to becoming, an attempt at individualization as well as generalization and the unity of immanence and transcendence. What, however, is characteristic of Tolstoy’s heroes inspired by some autobiographic details is not mere self-referentiality and self-reflection but the search for an answer to the question about what makes human existence understandable, since understanding oneself means understanding existence, and understanding existence means understanding oneself and others.