Life as a value and values in life (on the basis of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago) Cover Image

Жизнь как ценность и ценности в жизни (на материале книги А. И. Солженицына Архипелаг Гулаг)
Life as a value and values in life (on the basis of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago)

Author(s): Irina Aleksandrovna Sedakova
Subject(s): Anthropology, Language studies, Language and Literature Studies, Applied Linguistics, Philology
Published by: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-Sklodowskiej
Keywords: values; Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn; The Gulag Archipelago; žizn’ ‘life’ and related words; axiology of life

Summary/Abstract: Life and semantically related words (live, survive, live until, alive) in Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago are used frequently and constitute a peculiar text of life. At the moment of crisis, the value of life rises. Life as a base value is realized through several basic oppositions: life vs. death, life in prison vs. life out of prison, life under arrest vs. life before and after arrest. The oppositions are, however, frequently reinterpreted in a specific manner: life in prison is identified with death, life is short but also long etc. The value of life, also in a prison camp, is for Solzhenitsyn comparable to other human values, such as honour, dignity, homeland, truth, conscience and especially freedom. In the era of Gulag the axiology of life depends on both objective and subjective causes. However, regardless of ambivalent and relativistic valuations, life is understood as the highest value and spiritual life is more important than life in the physical, corporeal sense.

  • Issue Year: 22/2010
  • Issue No: 22
  • Page Range: 29-38
  • Page Count: 10
  • Language: Russian