Religiia Byta: The Supremacy of Private Life in V.V. Rozanov’s 'Fallen Leaves Trilogy'

• In Event: Religion and the Russian Silver Age

Abstract

In this paper we contend that if, as others have demonstrated, Rozanov argues that the Russian Orthodox Church is ultimately and essentially incompatible with the private life, then in “Solitariia” and “Fallen Leaves,” the author attempts to establish in its a place a “religion of the everyday,” or religiia byta, that is oriented towards a material and decidedly corporeal reality. We demonstrate this with analysis of the author's conceptions of the "Intimate God," a highly sensorial understanding of God and one's relationship to Him, and of the body, presented first as an abstract, spiritual form and then as a concrete, ephemeral thing as exemplified in the figure of his ailing wife, in whom the reader finds a union of the notions of the divine and of private life which constitutes the foundation of his religiia byta. Ultimately, we argue that Rozanov’s religiia byta, as it is elaborated in “Solitaria” and “Fallen Leaves,” is primarily informed not by any moral or spiritual ideals, as is the case with the Church; rather it is informed by the author’s conception of a decidedly unidealized corporeal reality.

Author

• Andrew Alexander Whittington-Biehle, Princeton U