The artistic structure of A. F. Pisemskiy’s antinihilistic novel The Heavy Seas

The structural peculiarities and basic principles of composition used by Alexey Pisemskiy while creating the first antinihilistic novel in the history of the Russian literature are analyzed in the article. The author recognizes the biographical method in portraying the main hero and antithesis which functions on all structural levels of the novel (its heroes, time and space, details) to be the basic structural principles. Among the uncommon for Pisemskiy’s novel poetics features in non-narrative approach lyrical digressions are singled out.