A History of “Cohesion”: from M. O. Gershenzon’s “The Poet’s Vision” to V. Weidlé’s “Les Abeilles d’Aristée”

The paper is devoted to perception in the theory of literature of the famous statement of Leo Tolstoy about “cohesion” that ensure wholeness of narrative in a novel. Tolstoy’s idea of “cohesion” has repeatedly inspired various interpretations in literary criticism (for instance, M.O. Gershenzon, V.B. Shklovsky, B.M. Eikhenbaum, T. Rainov, and others). There are two contrary positions on the interpretation of the idea of “cohesion”: M.O. Gershenzon’s intuition theory of and in the formal method of V.B. Shklovsky. In the theory of M.O. Gershenzon the “cohesion” become the foundation of the principle of slow reading and expresses the points of correlation between personal vision of author and reader. In V.B. Shklovsky’s theory the “cohesion” is a technique, an element of narration in a fairy tale, short story, novel, etc; and character subjectivity is defined by the function of narration technique. In the 1930s V. Weidlé reconsidered the development of the aesthetics of the first third of the 20th century, showing key changes in literature and art. During this period, it’s observed the disappearance of the individual from the system of views on the nature of literary work, massive influence of analytical approaches, both in literary criticism and in literature itself, fragmentation of wholeness of literary work in aesthetic perception and replicating its techniques. Researchers still often consider to the idea of “cohesion” through Shklovsky’s theory, that inevitably creates distortion in the apprehension of Tolstoy’s aesthetics.

“cohesion”, aesthetics, Leo Tolstoy, M.O. Gershenzon, H. Bergson, V.B. Shklovsky, V. Weidlé, slow reading, Russian formalism