IMAGE OF "SUPERFLUOUS MAN" IN THE RUSSIAN LITERATURE OF THE XIX CENTURY AND IN THE CHINESE WRITER YU DAFU’S CREATIVE WORK
The article is devoted to analysing “superfluous men” images in the Russian literature of the XIX century and in the prosaic works of the Chinese writer of the first half of the XX century Yu Dafu whose literary heritage is still insufficiently studied in the Russian literary criticism. The common features of “superfluous men” in the Russian literature and in Yu Dafu’s creative work are identified: under the conditions of the feudal society torn apart by sharp contradictions, all the personages sought changes but couldn’t realize their ideals. The paper provides a comparative characteristic of the personages considered as “superfluous men” in the literary works of the Russian authors and Yu Dafu, identifies the distinctive features of “superfluous men” in the Russian prose and in Yu Dafu’s prose. The differences are conditioned by the following factors: different historical backgrounds for the origin of the “superfluous man” image; original approaches of the Russian writers and the Chinese writer to analysing the “superfluous man” phenomenon.