"Achieve meaning and burn out..." — Boris Poplavskii, Critic and Thinker (an Approache to the Problem)

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https://doi.org/10.22455/Emigr.3034-3518-2024-1-507-521 

https://elibrary.ru/XNOFNF

Abstract: The present article has outgrown of analysis of Boris Poplavskii’s critical texts, as well as his letters and Diaries, reflecting his “Paris experience”. The aim of the analysis is to consider their semantic unity, based on topoi of the poet’s thinking and his philosophical style. As the point of the departure for interpretation there serves a short citation from Poplavskii’s text (appearing in the title of the present article), which sends one thinking of cultural tradition (Nietzsche’s symbolism of burning, Zen'kovskii’s dialectics of Russian pursuits, the philosophy of sense in the titles of works by Russian thinkers). The article discusses the semantic field of the notions of sense and arriving at sense as they appear in Poplavskii’s writings in their relation to 1) the concept of being-in-emigration and viewing the emigration as a kind of a “new Noah’s ark,” the beginning of a new personal life in its communion with higher values, the sphere of Freedom and Spirit; 2) the perception of the situation of Europe and the crisis of European culture in “the epoch of the absence of God”; 3) perception of Christianity, the figure of the kenotic Christ, with apology of the “truth of pity.” The results of the analysis make it possible to point to some similarities between Poplavskii’s thought and the ethics of Emmanuel Levinas as well as the philosophy of Nikolai Berdiaev (reflections on evangelical morality, of what remained unrealized in Christianity, of the emergence of “pure liberated spirituality”).

Keywords: Boris Poplavskii, sense, emigration, the figure of the kenotic Christ, “truth of pity”, Saint Francis, the Other, Emmanuel Levinas, Nikolai Berdiaev

Information about the author: Maria Tsimborska-Leboda, DSc in Humanities, professor. Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, 5 M. Curie-Skłodowskiej Square, 20-031 Lublin, Poland.

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8666-3563

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

For citation: Tsimborska-Leboda M. “‛Achieve meaning and burn out...’ — Boris Poplavskii, Critic and Thinker (an Approache to the Problem).” Emigrantica. Issue 1: In memory of Oleg Korostelev, ed.-comp. E.R. Ponomarev, sci. ed. E.R. Ponomarev, M. Schruba, ed. M.S. Shchavlinskii, D.V. Zaitsev. Moscow, IWL RAS Publ., 2023, pp. 507–521. (In Russian) https://doi.org/10.22455/Emigr.3034-3518-2024-1-507-521 

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Received: September 21, 2021
Approved: March 29, 2022
Date of publication: October 07, 2024

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