"Reflectivity" as "Hoffmann complex" structural element in the "Mirrors" short-stories cycle by Zinaida Gippius

Abstract

The article continues a number of studies on the "Hoffmann’s complex" in the works of Russian symbolist writers. In this paper we consider the principle of specularity as a form of double-world in the cycle of stories "Mirrors" by Zinaida Gippius, through which one can watch an actualisation of other elements of "Hoffmann complex": the problem of mechanisation of life and a man, which manifests itself in the opposition of living – unliving, the images of a double, a doll, a machine, the image of a mirror – a symbol of transition to another world. Based on Hoffmann tradition, Zinaida Gippius reinterprets some images in her own way: people are perceived as deprived of the soul of reflection or puppets ("Mirrors"), the double becomes a friend ("Moon"). The image of the moon is a symbol of an ideal world, the transition to which even through death symbolises the acquisition of freedom of the spirit. A new version of the opposition living – unliving in Zinaida Gippius’s works is the opposition of the culture of Russia and the West.