Abstract: The article analyzes in detail the views on the purpose of art and science of representatives of the aesthetic school and the school of democratic poetry of Russian literature of the XIX century. As a material for analysis, A.A. Fet's essays "From the Village" are used, in which the poet's view of the role and tasks of poetry, science and art in general is presented in detail. The opinion of the opponents вЂ“ the democratic school вЂ“ is presented by the example of the article "Dreams and reality" by the author of the satirical magazine "Iskra" Pavel Medvedev. The article examines in detail the polemical dialogue between the two schools, analyzes and compares the arguments of its representatives. The article discusses various mechanisms that allow the use of aesthetic beliefs as a basis for the formation of a parodically distorted personality and as a way to expose true views. P.A. Medvedev's cycle "Dreams and Reality", combining the features of satirical parody and satire itself, was created as a tool capable of discrediting A.A. Fet's journalistic speeches in essays "From the Village" and thus exposing not only his aesthetic, but also his socio-political position, the beliefs of a reactionary and a serf. The parodist achieved this effect exclusively through interpretation and commenting on the statements of A.A. Fet himself.