APOCALYPSE AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO ENDLESS SUFFERING: REVISING THE ORIGINS OF THE ARTISTIC CONCEPTUALISATION OF HISTORY AND ART

Abstract

The article considers the final book of the Bible, The Book of Revelation, to be defining for the artistic vision of history, formed in the space of European culture. With reference to N. Frye’s paradigm, the article analyses individual motifs of the Revelation, the interpretation of which is of particular importance in the context of the development of European literature, in particular, in terms of the vectors of the artistic conceptualization of history. According to the picture created in the Revelation, symbolically consistent with the Old Testament and evangelical preaching, each individual person and humanity as a whole are faced with the choice between a catastrophic end of history and a qualitative transformation of time that may come as a result of people’s spiritual efforts, opting for repentance and purification. The ability of the symbols in the Book of Revelation to convey the meanings relevant for interpreters in each new historical era accentuates the problem of understanding historical events and reflection on the course of culture genesis, primarily in the space of artistic discourse. The article characterizes the mechanisms of understanding individual and general existence, involved in the process of literary and artistic creation, as derived from the religious worldview, art preserving the connection with the latter at the level of symbolization of the depicted. According to C. G. Jung’s depth psychology, the archetypes of the collective unconscious are perceptible in the symbolic constructions of art, emphasizing that the meaning-making processes are deeply rooted in religious experiences, their mythologizing/identification. In this context, the very phenomenon of literary and artistic creation, which seems to be superimposed on the religious and mythological vision and understanding of existence, acquires particular importance. The apocalyptic motif of the catastrophic end of existence of the fictional world that gained decisive importance in the literature of the postmodern era is interpreted as a derivative of simulacrization of postmodern art, its separation from the leading artistic traditions of the past, rooted in the syncretic elements of spiritual culture.