WAR AND PEACE OR WAR MEMORY AND RATIONALITY IN TOLSTOY

Authors

  • Verónica Isabel Ferreira

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.48075/rlhm.v11i18.13360

Keywords:

Sociedade, Guerras Napoleónicas, Guerra e Paz, Lev Tostoi

Abstract

Contemporaneity begins and is forged in the French Revolution. The experience of the Napoleonic Wars darkens the mentality of the 19th century and inspires literary authors like Lev Tolstoy and Stendhal whose writings thoroughly represent the zeitgeist of the age. Nineteenth century society and war are carefully depicted in Tolstoy’s War and Peace, it’s in this epic tale that we can behold the mentality of the age with distinctness, be it that of the society that develops concurrently with the war’s progression be it that of the feelings and logics inherent to war itself. It’s in this last that Tolstoy’s thought and contemporary strategists cross paths. War is a locale with its own rationality, of chaos but nevertheless without a measure of order within the disorder that drives the soldiers in their “esprit de corps” to march towards Death for reasons beyond their comprehension – the glory of a man who will mark the History of Europe. The surpassing of Man’s finitude is a central focus in this literary masterpiece and foresees the existentialist concerns of an age which proclaims God’s death.

Published

03-03-2016

How to Cite

FERREIRA, V. I. WAR AND PEACE OR WAR MEMORY AND RATIONALITY IN TOLSTOY. Journal of Literature, History and Memory, [S. l.], v. 11, n. 18, 2016. DOI: 10.48075/rlhm.v11i18.13360. Disponível em: https://e-revista.unioeste.br/index.php/rlhm/article/view/13360. Acesso em: 9 jul. 2025.

Issue

Section

DOSSIÊ LITERATURA, FRONTEIRAS E TERRITÓRIOS