XVIII век

The article deals with the comprehension of the concept of reality in the cultural and scientifi c heritage of the French enlightener Denis Diderot. The interest to this topic is dictated by the timeless relevance of the innovative dramaturgical theory of the thinker, in which the issue of depicting the real is central. In the course of the analysis the works of domestic and foreign philosophers and literary critics, who touched upon the problem of the representation of reality in the 18th century and especially in the works of Denis Diderot, were involved.

The article discusses the problem of studying the semantics of the word “cowardly” in the Russian language of the 18th and 19th centuries. The meaning of this lexeme has radically changed over time – this is evidenced by contexts from various sources (both documentary, scientific, and artistic).

The paper examines the creative history of the play Psisha by Yuri Belyaev – a theatre critic, fi ction writer and dramatist of the Silver Age. While working on the article cycle A night at “The Opera House” about theatre history of the times of Catherine II, the critic researched historical sources: periodical, fi ction, documents of the second half of the 18th – early 19th centuries. There Belyaev must have found the material for his early fi ctional experience – the historical short story Psisha.

The article studies the diversity of ideas on the role of childhood in human fate in the work On man, his death and immortality (1792-1796) by A. N. Radishchev. The author pays particular attention to the main features of the moral ideal of a human being which, from the point of view of the Enlightenment writer, should be achieved through upbringing. In connection with this set of issues, A. N.