DAI Zhuomeng
(№.1,2013)
Abstract: From the 1880’s to the early 20th century, Russian literature entered a new historical period. Some writers started rethinking personality issues in terms of existentialism. The issue of boundaries was one of the issues ofexistentialism. The great Russian realist writer Lev Tolstoy, during the process of seeking the art form of the issue of boundaries, created a series of outstanding works like “Three Deaths”, “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” and “The Kreutzer Sonata”. The Kreutzer Sonata might be the most difficult one of his works to understand. He directly put himself into the language environment of the 20th century philosophy and art. The novella showed the writer’s thinking process of the classicism philosophy and the existentialism philosophy of the two ages infi ltrated each other and restricted each other. The Kreutzer Sonata confi rmed that Tolstoy’s existentialism in the framework of realist traditions became mature with each passing day.
Key words: Tolstoy; existentialism; death; boundary; The Kreutzer Sonata
