Abstract: The subject of the research is the peculiarities of introduction and perception of existential philosophy in Japan, in particular, the influence of the existential philosophic thought on Siina Rinzo’ works. The authors of the article state that within the Japanese culture a traditional attitude to a human being as a creature deeply involved in the natural and social world had been (at least up to the middle of the 20th c.) opposed to the Western one, taking a human being as an individual withdrawn into himself. Also, a considerable proximity can be found between existential and Buddhist mentalities which had favored the spread of existential philosophy in Japan. However, spreading of Capitalism in Japan led to strengthening of individualistic tendencies in Japanese society. Consequently, the main problem for existentially-oriented Japanese writers became “maintaining and determination of their own Self” (Jiga). The method of research: The empirico-hermeneutic methodology was applied: i. e. the method of correct description and interpretation of original sources; dialectical methodology supplemented with the principle of complementarity. Scientific novelty and conclusions: for the first time in Russian history of literature studies, the original texts both by Siina Rinzo (in the light of existential thought in Japan) and Japanese literature critics, texts by dedicated to Siina had been translated and analyzed; the authors also conclude that Siina’s existential motives are much closer to those of Dostoevsky than to the Western representatives of existentially-oriented literature. The characters in Siina’s works show obvious signs of their creator’s ethical striving which leads Siina to the ideals consonant to be ones of a Catholic representative of existentialism Gabriel Marcel.

Abstract: The article is devoted to the problem of the opposition between personality and society in literature based on the example of Mikhail Bulgakov's novel 'Heart of a Dog' and Abe Kobo's short story 'Tinnyusia'. The emphasis is made on the socio-cultural environment when those works were written because they were written at critical epochs of the paradigm shift accompanied with the total chaos of values. Those were the periods of Russia's becoming socialist USSR and Japan's 'turn' to demilitarization and democratization after the Second World War. In both cases psychology and behavior of people during social cataclysms were viewed and interpreted by Abe and Bulgakov through fantastic allegory and grotesque. In their research the authors of the present article have applied the empirical-hermeneutic method, i.e. the method of the correct description and interpretation of particular sources, as well as the dialectic method combined with the complementarity principle. This article is the first one in the history of Russian literary studies and Japanese studies to compare and analyze creative work of Abe Kobo and Mikhail Bulgakov from the cultural, sociological and philosophical points of view. For the first time in the academic literature the authors have also referred to foreign philosophical, socio-psychological and cultural sources including original Japanese texts.