Remarks on the Specificity of Art in the Writings of Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy

Abstract

The article discusses Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s and Lev Tolstoy’s definitions of art. The former believes art’s defining feature to be the creation of beauty. This beauty, though, does not belong solely to the sphere of aesthetics, but also to that of ethics. According to Tolstoy, we should not contend ourselves with a definition based on beauty, but rather look for another, general perspective, which would allow us to unequivocally decide what is and what is not art. Eventually, Tolstoy reaches the conclusion that art is a kind of a medium distinguished from other forms of interpersonal communication by its ability to transmit feelings. Both Russians agree as to art’s enormous powers of affecting man and believe it capable of saving the world.