Abstract:
Veniamin Kaverin’s novel In Front of the Mirror, which was published in 1972, is
based on the actual correspondence between the Soviet mathematician Pavel
Bez so nov and the painter Lidia Nikanorova, which Bezsonov handed over to
the writer. It is clear even from a superficial comparison that there is a large discrepancy
between the source material and the text of the novel; moreover, it is
evident upon a closer view that descriptive and ideological features that are connec
ted with Christianity and Byzantium in the novel are close to the ideas and
ima gery that were typical for Kaverin’s contemporaries. From the perspective of
the comparison between the text of the correspondence and the novel’s text, this
pa per attempts to show that the image of Byzantium in the novel is not similar to
its image in the correspondence. Through an analysis of metaphors, images, and
ideas connected with Byzantium in these texts, I intend to show that the image
of Byzantium in the novel In Front of the Mirror is not only determined by the
pub lic sentiment of this period, specifically, by the second wave of the Soviet intel
ligentsia’s conversion to Christianity, but that it is also extremely personal and
based on autobiographical experience.
