Pierre Bezukhov Becomes (Really) Russian: Some Issues of National Identity in Tolstoy’s Narrative and Life Experience

Resumo

This article seeks to analyze the weight and effects of the Western gaze (France’s in particular) in Tolstoy’s own life experience, and how it affected his literary production. The psychology of stigma provides some interesting insights as to how French opinions about Russia may have affected Tolstoy’s identity as a Russian, thus conditioning his choice of “identities” for the characters of some of his novels (for example, that of Pierre Bezukhov in War and Peace).