Manifestations of the City and the Self in the Poetry of Elena Švarc: The Spell Of Gnosticism

Abstract

This article addresses the spiritual worldview of Elena Shvarts as it appears in her poetry. Shvarts's poetic universe is based on an idiosyncratic view of the world that draws on various sources. Spiritual sources of her poetry have been traced to Eastern Orthodoxy, Judaism, Catholicism as well as to various occult esoteric movements. In this essay I shall focus on manifestations of Gnosticism within her syncretistic Weltanschauung. Gnosticism is conceived as a particular existential position comprising an alienated pessimistic attitude towards the surrounding world and an attempt to free oneself from the chains of the social and political reality – a position which Shvarts shared with many other poets of the Leningrad “second culture”.Her experience of the world in its essence is both mythological and mystical. Myth serves in her poetry as a spiritual model, which helps the poet to comprehend and depict the relation of the metaphysical reality to the physical world. She liberates religious motifs from traditional modes of expression and meanings in her striving to find new forms for her personal spiritual experience. In addition to her lyric works, Gnostic themes and symbols appear also in Shvarts's short prose and essays. This article concentrates on her Petersburg poetry. Her native city with its dualistic mythology serves as an adequate setting to demonstrate her worldview.