GENRE AND ARTISTIC ORIGINALITY OF D. S. MEREZHKOVSKY'S ESSAY "CALDERON"
The article analyzes genre and typological originality, structure and artistic peculiarities of D. S. Merezhkovsky's essay “Calde-ron”, which still has not captured researchers' attention. The author identifies its genre as a critical prose essay though the paper indicates Merezhkovsky's interest for literary studies. The article establishes level of objectiveness/subjectiveness of the literary critic's arguments, identifies the means used to create Calderon image, and discovers the elements of early symbolism and their influence on Merezhkovsky's philological thinking.