Archetypes of the home and the homelessness in Russian literature

Abstract

This article discusses presence of the archetypes of Home and Homelessness in Russian literature in the form of images, themes and motives, genetically dating back to the concept of Jung’s archetypes. In ancient Russian literature archetype of Home interpreted in relation to «earthly home» and «heavenly home». In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries appear two lines in Russian literature: literature of the Home and Homelessness. Archetypal image of the Home is present in historical poems and fairytales by Alexander Pushkin, stories by Nikolai Gogol and his epic canvas «Dead Souls», family and historical novels by L.M. Tolstoy and in novels and stories by M.A. Bulgakov, in Soviet village prose and urban novel. Archetypal image of homelessness is typical to poems and stories by Mikhail Lermontov, which are combined in the image of Pechorin. The theme of home losing is deeply developed in novels by Fyodor Dostoevsky, death of the home in novels by Bulgakov, utopian home – in novels by A.P. Platonov etc. Through the archetypes of the Home and Homelessness depict stories of Russian society in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.