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The Phenomenon of Rusia as an Example of the East-West Relationship. Mutual Russian-German Reception on the Level of Literary Genres

Helena Ulbrechtová


The study is divided into two parts. In the first part the position of Russia “between the East and the West” is outlined in the light of Russian as well as German philosophical thinking accenting their intersections. Central here is the question of the “mysteriousness” of the Russian culture and of the so-called Russian soul, which the author approaches from the
position of “Western Europe”. She touches also on the question of the Western enthusiastic admiration of Russia, in which the exhausted Europe at the turn of the 19th century saw regenerating forces.
The second part deals with select examples of the history of Russian-German literary relationships from the 19th and 20th centuries, which show differences in their mutual reception. While Russian literature was regarded as the successor of German philosophy and wanted to creatively develop it further (consequently German philosophy influenced the genre specifics of Russian literature), the image of Russia in Germany had mostly a political-sociological character and operated as a reflection of certain polemics of the period. Russian literature had no influence on the development of German genres; the reception of Russia can mostly be observed on the psychological level of sjuzhets and motifs.
In the conclusion the author outlines the possibilities that the study of the reflection of philosophical systems in the 21st century (dialogue between “Western” philosophy and Russian tradition) opens in Russian contemporary literature.


Keywords: Russia. East-West Relationship. Literary Genre. Russian Admiration. Western Europe. Philosophy. Mutual Reception.


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