RECEPTION OF THE BOOK OF PSALMS IN M. OPITZ’S POETRY (THE PROBLEM OF BIBLICAL ARCHETEXTUALITY)

Abstract

The problem of relationship between fiction and «axial» archetext of Christian culture and European literature, the Bible, is an important problem of contemporary literature. The Bible is not only a religious text, but also a literaty one. It includes outstanding examples of poetry and The Book of Psalms that is an anthology of ancient Hebrew religious and philosophical poetry clearly representing a dialogue between I and the Eternal Thou (in M. Buber’s terminology). The significance of the Bible has an especially high level for the development of German religious and philosophical poetry. In the article the author studies an archetextual role of The Book of Psalms in Martin Opitz’s (1597–1639) poetry using cultural and historical, comparative, hermeneutic methods and a method of textual holistic analysis. M. Opitz is the first of German poets, who turns to the genres of paraphrase of Psalm and spiritual song. M. Opitz starts with penitential Psalms for paraphrasing. He makes the concept of guilt and confession deeper and considers it a means of withdrawal from the spiritual crisis and prevention of a national tragedy. Following the logic and structure of Psalms, which also play the role of architexts, the German poet explains and complements them, correlates them with his time, going after the moral and didactical purpose above all. Futhermore, he is the first to use consistent accentualsyllabic verse introduced by him and song structures so that his paraphrases are remembered by people. Spiritual songs which contain numerous allusions on Psalms are characterized by shorter metre and simpler syntax. While the poetics of baroque prevails in the paraphrases of Psalms, the tendencies of classicism are more expressive in the spiritual songs. Paraphrases of Psalms and spiritual songs by M. Opitz connect personal and national ground, expression of suffering and hope for transformation of life during hard times for Germany viz. the epoch of Thirty Years’ Wars.