The Power of the Picture, Poem, Prayer, and Person: Mythic Consciousness and Russian Sensibilities from the Icon and Pushkin, to Malevich and Mayakovsky

Abstract

Within Stalin's regime, elements of mythical idealism run parallel, though somewhat invisibly, to those of dialectical materialism in the modes of cultural production. It is especially difficult to pinpoint these elements, for they lie in a world opposed to the scientific and thus must be regarded in part as illusory. Yet this illusory spirit constantly marks Russia's history and therefore I chart a course into such domain to question the relationship between Russian spirituality and Russian creative expression in the period of the utopian dream. Susanne Langer in Feeling and Form describes "mythic consciousness" as the means of understanding the world in primitive phases of social development. From a Marxist-Stalinist perspective, as a shift from the primitive toward the cultured, idealism represented a continuation of the primitive. And as the shift toward Marxist ideology during the periods of great revolution was a movement away from the primitive, it marked a shift towards the perfection of discursive forms. Yet, through all this strife and shifting, a common element runs through all Russian/Soviet Literature and the Arts; regardless of era or art form, that difficult concept to define known as the Mysterious Russian Soul is what marks the greatness of Russia's contribution to Arts and the Humanities.