World as a Theatre in Philosophical Prose of A. F. Losev and S. D. Krzhizhanovsky

Abstract

This article is devoted to considering philosophy of theatre of two Russian thinkers — Aleksei Fyodorovich Losev and Sigizmund Dominikovich Krzhizhanovsky. Particularly, the article deals with ideas on the world as a theatre that were expressed in their philosophical prose, with the help of broad contextual material giving the whole understanding of philosophical and theatrical problematics in the beginning of the 20th century. It is paid particular attention to A. F. Losev’s story “Theatregoer” and S. D. Krzhizhanovsky’s fictional and philosophical treatise “Philosopheme about Theatre” where the main states of their philosophy of theatre were expressed. The element that unifies both thinkers is the idea of the world as a theatre which, however, transforms in their works in different images (concepts) of theatre. As for Losev’s story, one can distinguish four images of theatre: theatre- school, theatre-show, theatre-farce, “theatre-concentration camp”. In the conception of Krzhizhanovsky there are three clearly distinguished images of the world as a theatre: theatre of being, theatre of everyday life, theatre of “would”. On the basement of the philosophical analysis of Losev and Krzhizhanovsky’s works, it is made a conclusion about different ontological statuses of the images of theatre given by them: every image of theatre implies specific universality and specific worldview. Besides, the aspect that also unifies Losev and Krzhizhanovsky’s ideas about the world as a theatre is their theatrical anthropologism — an attempt to link different images of theatre with the nature of the human being and with the personological problematics of Russian philosophy. Thus, the article covers the little-known side of heritage of two Russian thinkers who created different conceptions of the world as a theatre which are united by universalism, anthropologism and hierarchy.