Florensky and Flaubert: Anticipating French Theory

Aim. To demonstrate how P. A. Florensky’s philological legacy anticipated the French theory approach (R. Barthes, M. Foucault) to Flaubert’s oeuvre. Methodology. The study employs comparative historical analysis with elements of close reading. Florensky’s thought is described within contemporaneous intellectual debates, which are then juxtaposed with discussions in French theory. Biographical circumstances are considered as sources of philological inspiration, emphasizing that during pivotal historical periods, this existential subtext of literary reflection may come to the forefront. Results. The analysis reveals that Florensky’s approach to Flaubert’s visuality constitutes a systematic philological examination that accounts for the generic specificities of hagiographic literature and realist narrative, as well as the lived embodiments of these scripts. For Florensky, as well as for French theorists, the world is a text which may abruptly manifest itself in in the destinies of people under certain conditions. However, while French theorists correlated text with other texts, Florensky aligned it with ritual. Research implication. It has been shown that the hermeneutic method of Russian religious philosophy reveals various scenarios of redemption, which makes clarification of the relationship between the author and the hero in aesthetic production possible.