The Concepts of Child / Children and Childhood in M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin’s Works

Aim. To examine the individual author’s interpretation of the concepts of child / children and childhood in the works of the satirist, to analyze their value content, to demonstrate, on the basis of the observations made, the uniqueness of Saltykov-Shchedrin’s worldview, his ideological, artistic, ethical attitudes and socio-historical views. Methodology. The article’s methodological basis is a historical, literary, contextual, and comparative study of the concepts of child / children and childhood in the works of M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. The author also draws on C. G. Jung’s theory of archetypes. Results. The writer’s interpretation of the concepts of child / children and childhood is shaped by the ideals of an educator, moralist, and social satirist. The issues connected with children and childhood are dramatic, dependent on the established principles of upbringing in society, the state of the institution of the family, and the extent of human freedom. In the image of the child, the writer distinguishes two hypostases – suffering and hope for a future triumph of social harmony. The analysis of the concepts of child / children and childhood helps to deepen understanding of the author’s aesthetic and social views, his humanistic ideals, formed on the basis of the philosophy of the Age of Enlightenment, utopian socialism, evangelical ethnicism, and the democratic ideas of the 1840s–1980s. An analysis of Saltykov-Shchedrin’s works written in different years shows that the writer, along with other realist artists of the second half of the 19 th century, made a worthy contribution to the artistic realization of the constants of the child / children and childhood and, thus, to the conceptual sphere of Russian classical literature. Research implications. The results of the study can be used in studying the issues of ideals in satire, as well as those concerning the historical-philosophical, social-ethical principles of Saltykov-Shchedrin, the originality of his artistic world, as well as ideological and aesthetic convergences and repulsions in the interpretation of the concepts of child / children and childhood which can be observed in the works of S. T. Aksakov, F. M. Dostoevsky, L. N. Tolstoy.