THE RECEPTION OF GNOSTIC PHILOSOPHY IN THE NOVEL BY LEONID LEONOV "PYRAMID"

Abstract

The article proposes a model for analyzing one of the most significant Russian novels of the twentieth century in terms of reception and transformation of the gnostic ideological paradigm. The final novel of the great and still not fully appreciated classic of the twentieth century Leonid Leonov is a synthesis of several philosophical traditions, the leading of which is undoubtedly the gnostic. The study's authors understand Gnosticism, not primarily as a certain dogmas or theses system associated with a particular set of names and localized in time and space, but rather as a certain mindset, a mindset parallel Christian gnosis canonical and alternative to it. In this sense that we can speak of the reception of gnostic motives by Leonov, who, of course, was not a gnostic philosopher in the full sense of the word, but the whole course of his powerful thought, his artistic picture of the world was consonant with this great flow of European culture. The main focus of the article is on the model of the world "Pyramid", the structure of the "Dymkov universe", examining elements of Gnostic models perceived by Leonov and transformed by him into something unique and occupying a very special place in Russian literature of the past century. The image-concepts of the Pleroma, the Void, the Demiurge, the Gnostic cosmogony, the relationship of good and evil as elements of the structure of the Gnostic world are considered