THE MORAL IMPERATIVE: THE WORK OF P. ROMANOV. (RUSSIAN TEXT)

This dissertation examines the creative path of Pantelejmon Sergeevic Romanov (1884-1938) in the context of the literary situation in Russia during the twenties and thirties.; The dissertation's goal is twofold: to examine the social-historical and individual-creative circumstances which led to the author's wide popularity in the twenties and the beginning of the thirties in Russia as well as abroad; and to analyze the causes of his eventual creative compromise. Romanov's individual development is described in connection with the change in social consciousness among writers and the intelligentsia of that time.; Romanov's thematics, variety in genre, and his narrative technique receive special attention.; P. S. Romanov worked in different genres of narrative prose. One finds short satirical sketches, more substantial stories dedicated to ethical problems, and psychological novellas. He also utilized satirical and problematic novels, the epistolary novel, the family novel, and worked on a huge, unfinished epic-novel about the evolution of Russian society in the years preceeding the revolution. Romanov considered this epic to be his life's work. Besides this, he wrote several plays, cycles of ethnographical sketches, philosophical aphorisms and essays.; Critics have disagreed about Romanov's work, most likely because of his variety in thematics and genre, as well as in his style and narrative technique. This perception has not changed since that time. One critic calls him a brilliant satirist and an author of short stories. Others refer to him as the heir to the tradition of Russian classical literature in the nineteenth century, and others consider him a talented imitator of Goncarov, Turgenev, and Tolstoj.; An analysis of narrative technique in Romanov's prose, of lexical and stylistic organization in the text, of particularities in the devices of character development, and of the conflict's disclosure all allow us to speak of his originality. At the same time, one is led to unify the divergent critical views of Romanov, and establish his particular place in the development of Russian prose in the twenties and thirties.