My research is centred on the novels of R.L.Stevenson, studied from the point-of-view of ‘play’, traced at all levels of plot and formal structure. It helps me to discover the characteristic and original nature of Stevenson’s neo-romantic dialectics, based on the unity of ambiguous, natural play with more unequivocal, spiritual art.

To my mind, The conflict between ideal and real is considered by Stevenson from philosophical and historical points-of-view as a contradiction between barbarity and civilization. The misunderstanding of Christ’s wisdom in the world of history gives birth to a false masquerade, where ideal and real take each other’s roles. Fair play becomes eclectic unfair play when art degenerates to anti-life and life degenerates to anti-art. 

In his novels, especially Master of Balantrae (1889), Stevenson not only draws vividly such a perverted world, inhabited by doubles, but discovers a genuine way to historical development from naive syncretism to mature synthesis of the aesthetic and moral. In order to stop false masquerade, ‘unconscious play’ must be opposed by ‘conscious not-play’, which helps to differentiate ‘art’ and ‘life’ as two sides of play.

Conscious art is completely ideal, fictitious, aesthetic, but at the same time real, moral, directed to cognition of human problems and perfection of life. It is not only opposed to unconscious play, it is aimed at "wholeness". It is an active force that raises play to the level of ‘Living Art’ (when unconscious play becomes the ideal form of aesthetic play-synthesis) and the ‘Art of Living’ (when conscious art becomes the ideal subject matter of art-syncretism, whose real form is unconscious play).

Conscious art for Stevenson is a sort of mediator between ideal and real play, which is man’s true destiny. Conscious art provides a ‘mirror’ through which a man can see not only himself but God, whose ‘play’ is mediator in the development of Divine Art. Stevenson’s metaphysics of human ‘Art of Playing’ is secular, but it helps to go deep into religious metaphysics of God’s ‘Play of Art’.

The true dialectics of ‘play’ and ‘art’, based on the mirror-principle, provides great opportunities for the development of human nature and spirit, built on imagination that is free and necessary. That’s why it becomes not only a subject of plot development, but also a narrative principle of Stevenson’s novels. The novels are based on playing with myth and history. Naive mythology is not rejected but developed to the level of mature mythology (as in the Bible), where play is not only the source but also the aim of true human art, which is a motive force of history. In these works Stevenson makes a difference between barbarous and civilized myths, built on different grounds, but are not clearly distinguished by most people, because they don’t understand that the way to Christian Love must pass through the cognition and conquering of Death, which is diabolic denial of Love and the stimulus of it at the same time.

In the context of fundamental opposition of unconscious play and conscious art we focus on the following areas :

• Stevenson’s relationship with his epoch, national traditions and literary trends, neo-romantic, romantic and pre-romantic;
• Stevenson’s philosophical and aesthetic views (especially his attitude to the Christian ideal of culture and his theory of a novel as a new epos);
• interrelation of myth and history in Stevenson’s novels;
• the subject and narrative structures of the novels; based on the ‘mirror’ principle;
• ‘dramatic’, ‘romantic’,’ psychological’ and ‘symbolic’ principles of genre structures;
• aspects in his novels that are extreme forms of the conventionally adventurous and experimental at the same time;
• his choice of a hero, who is the subject and the object of the play.

BIBLIOGRAPHY of L.I. PREOBRAZHENSKAYA (earlier works as L.I. BORINSKIKH)

Borinskikh L.I. (1990a). ‘The genre of The Master of Ballantrae by R.L.Stevenson’. Bulletin of Moscow State University, ser. 9 [philology], ?1: 54- 62. [in Russian].

Borinskikh L.I. (1990b). ‘The problems of technical and humanitarian progress in The Master of Ballantrae by R.L.Stevenson’. In *** (ed.) The problems of morality in Foreign Literature. Perm: Perm State University. Pp. 47-57. [in Russian].

Borinskikh L.I. (1990c). ‘The method to reveal a character in the works of R.L.Stevenson [The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde]’/. In *** (ed.) The Problem of character in literature. Tchelyabinsk: Tchelyabinsk State University. Pp. 31-32. [in Russian].

Borinskikh L.I. (1991). ‘Correlation of "romantic" and "dramatic" principles in the aesthetics of R.L.Stevenson’. Paper read at the Conference ‘Artistic Trends of the Western Literature Process in the 19-20^th Centuries’ (Perm State University, April 1991). [in Russian].

Borinskikh L.I. (1993). ‘Playing with myth and History in The Master of Ballantrae by R.L.Stevenson’. In *** (ed.) The Problems of Method and Poetics in Foreign Literature of 19-20^th Centuries. Perm: Perm State University. Pp. 95-107. [in Russian].

Borinskikh L.I. (1995). ‘The category of "play" in neo-romantic aesthetics of R.L.Stevenson’. In *** (ed.) 5th International Conference ‘English Literature in the Context of the Philosophical-Aesthetic Ideas’. Perm: Perm State University. [in Russian].

Borinskikh L.I. (1997). ‘Philosophical and historical aspects of plot development in Treasure Island by R.L.Stevenson’. In *** (ed.) Traditions and interrelations in Foreign Literature in the 19-20^th Centuries. Perm: Perm State Univ. [In Russian].

Preobrazhenskaya, L. (1997). ‘Models of Myths in The Master of Ballantrae by R.L.Stevenson’. A paper read at the 4th International Lateum Conference (Moscow, September 1997). [in Russian].

Preobrazhenskaya, L. (in preparation). ‘The Neo-Romantic Novel of R.L.Stevenson’ (thesis at *** University).