2026 Issue №3

The aim of the present study is to examine J. R. R. Tolkien’s artistic ethics and aesthetic ideas based on the short story “Leaf by Niggle.” The writer’s artistic philosophy is analyzed in the context of Immanuel Kant’s classical practical philosophy. The article examines the main formulations of Kant’s categorical imperative in comparison with the maxim of prudent self-love as understood by the Königsberg philosopher. It is suggested that Kant’s universal ethical imperative may be regarded as a sufficiently accurate formulation of the fundamental moral law in the fictional world of Tolkien’s “Leaf by Niggle.” The choice of Kant’s imperative, autonomous from religious and cultural tradition, is primarily determined by the English writer’s well-known aspiration to avoid elements of religious preaching in his own literary texts and, secondly, by Tolkien’s unquestionable knowledge of Kant’s practical philosophy. The theme of free creative activity in “Leaf by Niggle” is examined in the context of Kant’s moral imperative, as Tolkien’s narrative presents a conflict between the freedom of creative self-expression and the virtuous life of the protagonist. The study concludes that, in Tolkien’s artistic worldview, the meticulous adherence of a creative individual to the moral law spiritualizes free creativity, endowing the artist’s work with genius and a unique character of supreme reality in the style of medieval realism.

The Polish playwright Jerzy Szaniawski is one of the representatives of the Polish anti-fascist Resistance movement who survived the Second World War and reflected it in his works through the prism of the tragedy of an entire generation. The article examines his most renowned play “Two Theatres,” which not only engages in a debate concerning the genre-specific features of contemporary drama but also metaphorically conveys the tragedy of an individual against the background of devastating war. In 1969, the premiere of this play, staged by the Polish guest director Erwin Axer, took place at the M. Gorky Bolshoi Drama Theatre. The leading roles were performed by Sergei Yursky and Oleg Basilashvili. The article addresses the issue of the Soviet audience’s reception of Jerzy Szaniawski’s play in the context of the national specificities of two theatrical traditions: Polish and Russian. The study concludes that the metaphorical image of war became the central locus in the play for reinterpreting the tragic history of the Polish people, and that the understanding of the tragedy of an entire generation possesses specific features within Polish national consciousness.

The article presents an attempt to interpret certain aspects of the anthropogonic myth of the Russian avant-garde as realized at the level of metaphorical structures of avant-garde poetic texts. The study employs the analytical framework of the cognitive theory of metaphor; a corpus of anthropocentric metaphors is analyzed in detail, with particular attention paid to autometaphors (metaphors with a central I-component). Two approaches to metaphorizing the image of the subject (I), most frequently realized in avant-garde poetic texts, are examined: through correlation with components of the mental sphere (phenomena of consciousness / the unconscious) and through identification with the world (or a fragment / component of the world). Based on the results of the study, structural models of metaphors relevant for describing I-centered avant-garde poetic texts are constructed: “consciousness is I,” “product of consciousness (thought) is I,” “product of the unconscious (emotion) is I,” “space of the world is I,” “material of the world is I,” “component of the world is I.” The article also formulates conclusions concerning the specific features of the anthropogonic (autoanthro­pogonic) myth of the avant-garde constructed through the use of autometaphors. Its most prominent characteristics include the reflexive nature of the authorial I, the diffuseness of the boundaries of the I, and the wide variability of the manifestations of the I within the space of poetic texts.