‘WAS THERE ANY BOY AT ALL?’ ON THE MEANING OF GORKY’S REFRAIN
Journal: Voprosy literatury
Year: 2018

The article considers all contexts for the famous phrase, ‘Was there any boy at all?’ found in the novel The Life of Klim Samgin [ Zhizn’ Klima Samgina ] and indicative of its universality, and attempts to reveal its possible literary sources (lines from the letters by A. Blok and M. Prishvin, and N. Berberova’s poems). The meaning of the recurrent phrase is examined through the author’s philosophical influences (Protagoras, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche), with a particular stress on the connectio