Biographical Subtext Andre Gide Stories “Strait is the Gate” and “The Pastoral Symphony”

Abstract

The author puts task to interpret works by Gide “Strait is the gate” and “The Pastoral Symphony” as antinomian unity reflecting dialogical religious views of the writer. The author uses the following methods: biographical, comparative, socio-cultural and method of textual analysis. The writer was a hereditary Protestant and in his work a very large place occupied by revision of the traditional religious concepts of morality. A. Gide thought that basic to the doctrine of christianity – the humanity of Christ and he opposed it to the dogmas of the Church, embodied in the comments of the Apostle Paul (he treated them as to social stratification). Radical religious ideas A. Gide caused by such factors: energetic revolt against Puritan upbringing; categorical rejection of the dogmas of the Church and their socio-cultural priorities of the modernism. The original in the article is a comparative analysis of the works said in the aspects of the problematic, the construction of the plot, of characterization. The study reveals their antinomy in all three aspects: on the level of problems (diametric opposite of the main conflict resolution), the plot (the opposite direction of development), the construction of images of the main characters (images-antipodes). Thus, the author comes to the conclusion that the product of the Andre Gide’s “Strait is the gate” and “The Pastoral Symphony” is antinomian unity. Moreover, it is, as such, they reflect the inherent dialogic thinking of the writer, show some contradictions in his world and allow us to determine the evolution vector religious views of the author.