LANDSCAPE AND MYTH, LIFE AND DEATH: THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE CREATIVE VIEWS OF M. GORKY AND I. A. BUNIN

Abstract

The article examines the difference in creative views of two representatives of Russian literature at the turn of the XIX and XX centuries − Maxim Gorky and Ivan Bunin, using the example of an analysis of landscape descriptions and mythopoetics, an approach to considering the concepts of «life» and «death» in the stories «Chapel» and «Old Woman Izergil». The analysis identifies the key differences between Bunin and Gorky's depiction and representation of life and death, characterizes landscape descriptions, and identifies similarities and differences in the mythological layer of creativity. It is concluded that the landscape in both works is able to motivate a change of plot, contains a mythopoetic component that reveals the phenomenon of life and death in different ways.