Introduction as a Genre of Auto-Commentary in Works of I. S. Turgenev

The phenomenon of the author’s reflection on his works is considered on the basis of the introductions by I. S. Turgenev. The absence of special works on this topic allows us to speak about the novelty of the study. Its relevance is associated with raising the question of the specifics and role of the author’s understanding of the meaning of his own works and its correlation with the perception of the reader. The results of a comparative analysis of all of Turgenev’s introductions are presented in the article. The attitude of Turgenev to the opinion of the reader and criticism is shown. It is proved that Turgenev’s introductions “do not justify” their theoretical expectations, because the writer deliberately refuses to comment on the intentionality and meaning of his works in them. It is concluded that this allows the writer to express a theoretically important idea about the “non-interference” of the writer in the text he created. Particular attention is paid to the “Introduction to the Novels”, which is a kind of metatext uniting all six works of this genre, which allows Turgenev to determine the main direction and principles of his work. It is shown that these issues are considered by the writer in the context of general aesthetic problems: the specifics of artistic cognition, freedom of creativity, the conscious and unconscious in art, the relationship between the artist and the critic / reader, etc.