Gurevich P.S. Vladimir Kantor as a Prose Writer and Philosopher

Abstract: The article presents an analysis of prose writing of a famous author and philosopher Vladimir Kantor. In a sense, his numerous works reflect the history of the Soviet society through unique images of the main characters. Of course, Vladimir Kantor does not see himself as a story writer of previous decades. He describes the everyday life and personalities of his heroes based on his own memories ad impressions. The writer himself tells us about it. He says it does not make any sense to retell his biography because his life is all shown in his creative work. However, it is not his own life Vladimir Kantor focuses on. He describes existential experience of several generations. Vladimir Kantor's vision of the events described in his books can be associated with European and world philosophy and amazes with its profound generality and insight into human nature. In his analysis of Kantor's creative work, Gurevich applies the methods of literary research and comparative analysis. Gurevich also tries to provide a general description of Kantor's prose writing. In fact, Kantor's works have never been analyzed as an independent research subject. Kantor's books usually had brief reviews or prefaces but there is a very limited number of articles or researches devoted to Kantor. Meanwhile, the reading audience is showing more and more interest towards Kantor's books with every year passing by. This is why in his article Gurevich does not only review particular novels or stories written by Kantor but also tries to describe the writer's prose writing activity in general. Kantor's works and activity have been so versatile that they deserve to be the subject of an independent monographic research but not just an article. 

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