THEORY OF PURE ART IN THE PERCEPTION OF SOVIET WRITERS END OF 1980

Abstract

Responses of Soviet writers (Yevgeny Yevtushenko, David Samoilov, Alexander Kushner, Alexander Kazintsev, Vladimir Leonovich, Vladimir Korobov, Larisa Vasilieva and others) to the question of the anthology “Poetry” (1989, vol. 5) about the relevance of the Pure Art theory in the end of the twentieth century have been analyzed in the article. Interpretation of the “art for art” by survey participants have been considered in relation to the perception of this theory in the Russian aesthetic criticism mid-nineteenth century and Soviet literary criticism. The diversity of points of view among the writers at the turn of the 1980s – 1990s on the essence of the Pure Art theory and its significance have been revealed.