PORTRAIT AS AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL OBJECT OF ANALYSIS (ON THE EXAMPLE OF THE WORKS OF O. WILDE AND N. GOGOL)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the portrait as an anthropological object in the literary works of O. Wilde and N. Gogol. In modern philological anthropology, the portrait genre is seen as a special medium of human representation, which focuses attention on human subjectivity. The author shows that the portrait in a literary text goes beyond the description of appearance, turning into a complex cultural and philosophical phenomenon. In Wilde's novel «The Picture of Dorian Gray», the portrait acts as a symbol of split personality, moral degradation and the crisis of Victorian aestheticism. In Gogol's story «The Portrait», the image becomes a carrier of demonic power, a source of temptation and spiritual fall of the hero, which reflects the Orthodox understanding of art and the moral responsibility of the artist. Comparative analysis reveals both differences in cultural and philosophical traditions and similarities in the interpretation of the portrait as a means of revealing human essence. The portrait is considered as a «text within a text», an «anthropological marker», which reflects the archetypes, fears and values of society, and also serves as a tool for studying the boundaries between external and internal, physical and spiritual.