Yakov Krotov

ON NICKOLAY BERDYAEV

Berdyaev's style

The style of Berdyaev is definitely different from the style of other Russian writers of his time.  His style was gradually formatted during 1900-s and his first famous book "The Sense of Creativity" (1914) have shown this style in its full splendidness.

Berdyaev's phrases are much shorter (average of 13 words), and there is a large overfall in the length of the neighbouring phrases, The average amount of adjectives is 8% (other Russian authors have 13-15%), and the amount of verbs is even lesser (8%). The "trade-mark" of Berdyaev’s style is the often use of the verb "yest" ("is") or even omission of the predicate at all. In general, the style sometimes sounds as a set of military commands. It is closer to the style of Nitsche and Leo Tolstoy than to the style of Dostoevskiy and Hegel.

In general, especially for the Russian reader, Berdyaev’s style pruduces the impression of energetic vers libre, bearing something of the force of Walt Whitman or Herman Mellvill. It hypnotizes and let the reader feel what real creativity means, at least in the writer’s work. His prose is  reminding the jazz.

1999

More detailed analyses is available in Russian

 

 
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