ABOUT THE COMPOSITION OF THE NOVEL BY M.Y. LERMONTOV “THE HERO OF OUR TIME”

Abstract

The article is on a problem of compositional construction of Lermontov’s novel “The Hero of Our Time”. The composition is considered mainly in a concentric plan, placing the image of Pechorin in the center. The “fractional” construction of the novel is explained by its artistic and psychological problems dating back to Pechorin’s “history of the soul”. In the last years of his life, Lermontov took a new look at the social role of art and literature. The liberation of the individual from the “vices”, if these are the vices of our entire generation, meant the liberation of society from them in the process of historical movement. Lermontov “pointed out” the “disease of the century” and thereby raised the question of how to treat it, recognized that literature cannot eliminate the “ailments” of society by its own efforts, change the social structure. Thus, the poet forced us to think about the need to turn to effective means that are outside of art, literature.