Yakov Krotov
Berdyaev's style
The style of Berdyaev is definitely different
from the style of other Russian writers of his time. His
style was gradually formatted during 1900-s and his first famous
book "The Sense of Creativity" (1914) have shown this style in
its full splendidness.
Berdyaev's phrases are much shorter (average of
13 words), and there is a large overfall in the length of the
neighbouring phrases, The average amount of adjectives is 8% (other
Russian authors have 13-15%), and the amount of verbs is even
lesser (8%). The "trade-mark" of Berdyaev’s style is the often
use of the verb "yest" ("is") or even omission of the predicate
at all. In general, the style sometimes sounds as a set of military
commands. It is closer to the style of Nitsche and Leo Tolstoy
than to the style of Dostoevskiy and Hegel.
In general, especially for the Russian reader, Berdyaev’s
style pruduces the impression of energetic vers libre, bearing
something of the force of Walt Whitman or Herman Mellvill. It
hypnotizes and let the reader feel what real creativity means,
at least in the writer’s work. His prose is reminding the
jazz.
1999
More detailed analyses
is available in Russian
