Qu’avez-vous retenu de votre lecture ?

Abstract

Fedor Sologub’s interest in magic, the demonic and the supernatural culminates in his novel The Petty Demon (Melkii Bes, 1905) and the trilogy The Created Legend (Tvorimaia legenda, 1907–1913, 1914). The Petty Demon offers a gloomy vision of a provincial Russian town (a model of Russia as a whole, at the very least) as a possessed place. Although Sologub hardly depicts any demonic activities graphically, he gives plenty of indirect references to witchcraft, black magic, and the presence of unclean forces. The Created Legend represents an attempt to offer a “positive program” for the lost society. Set in Russia in the early days of the revolution of 1905–1907 and in a fictitious kingdom, the United Isles of the Mediterranean, it introduces new themes in addition to the previously explored black magic and the demonic: political activism, alternative education, scientific thought and “theurgical” creation. The trilogy professes the ability of creative consciousness to transform the conditions of life for the better. Taken together, the two works illustrate the author’s belief that man’s energy can be used not only with negative (destructive and “demonic”) intentions but also with positive (creative) ones.