Russian Symbolism Research Articles

Из истории академической серии «Литературное наследство» (К 90-летию издания)

The article examines the history of the publication of the academic series Literary Heritage based on new archival materials. The publication was initiated in 1931, when archival and publishing activities were affected by political trials. The author of the draft used political rhetoric to get permission to publish it from the Central Committee of the CPSU(b). In 1932, following the decree “On the Restructuring of Literary and Artistic Organizations,” Literary Heritage became an exemplary academic publication and received international recognition. Literary Heritage developed a new method as it placed the author in the position of a student at the editorial board. In Soviet times, the Literary Heritage existed under the conditions of censorship and ideological control but still managed to publish a volume on Russian symbolism in 1937. The years 1947–1959 were difficult for Literary Heritage when the editorial office was accused of cosmopolitanism. In its publishing policy, Literary Heritage was ahead of time and above the reader’s dogmatism which led to the sequestration of several volumes. The history of Literary Heritage contributed to creating an intellectual and ideological platform that nurtured a new generation of literary historians.

Из комментариев к книге стихотворений и переводов Эллиса «Крест и Лира». II. Средневековые латинскиe эпиграфы

The essay examines Latin sequentiae and other texts on the border of literature and liturgy that appear in the original as epigraphs in works of the poet and translator Ellis (Lev Lvovich Kobylinsky, 1879 –1947) including his third book of poems and translations Krest i Lira (“The Cross and the Lyre”), compiled in Locarno in 1938. The identification of these texts allows us to map out with precision the range of his work with medieval Western European themes and to explore the role of Latin liturgy in the creation of his conception of the interpenetration of Eastern and Western Christian traditions. Thе evidence also shed additional light upon the poetics of the adaptation of Catholic culture in Russian Symbolism (especially in works of Vyacheslav Ivanov).

Сказка Оскара Уайльда “The Selfish Giant” в творчестве Эллиса: от драматургии к поэзии

The article discusses some aspects of the reception of Oscar Wilde’s fairy tale The Selfish Giant by the Russian symbolist poet and translator Ellis (L.L. Kobylinsky; 1879–1947) as reflected in archival sources and memoirs of his contemporaries. Particularly, Ellis’ participation in theatre performances for children and his interest in the forms of juvenile literature are considered within the framework of his overall poetical activities. Among these plays, a piece entitled The Garden of the Giant which is based on Wilde’s tale The Selfish Giant is to be mentioned first and foremost, since Ellis himself attributed great importance to this work making several attempts to publish it separately and even trying to convince a Moscow modernist publishing house Musaget to implement his rather extraordinary plans. The article also attempts to demonstrate that Ellis’ passion for Wilde’s literary heritage can be traced in his own subsequent work as his second collection of verse Argo (1914) proves it. As, I argue, its first section entitled Snuffbox with Music has been developed under the influence of Ellis’ previous work on juvenile performances, which manifests itself in dedications, the texts of the section borrowed from the juvenile plays as well as through the motivic structure of this cycle.

ПОЕЗІЯ ФЕДОРА СОЛОГУБА І ФРАНЦУЗЬКИЙ СИМВОЛІЗМ

The article is devoted to a comparative analysis of the lyrics of Fyodor Sologub and his predecessors, French symbolist poets Paul Verlaine and Charles Baudelaire. The poetry of Sologub is considered in the context of the main provisions of symbolist aesthetics, set forth in the theoretical works of Jean Moréas and lectures of Dmitry Merezhkovsky. Fyodor Sologub became interested in poetry of the French Symbolists at the end of the 1880s and did not stop thereafter. The first significant poet for the Russian symbolist was Paul Verlaine, whose poems were so consonant with Sologub’s worldview that the latter considered them as an organic part of his work. The picturesqueness and musicality of Verlaine's poems, his methods of suggestion, mystical irony, as well as the highest level of verification became for Sologub a starting point and one of the most important guidelines in his work. Sologub enters into a poetic dialogue with Charles Baudelaire. The undertaken comparative analysis of their poems showed that, having common aesthetic features, aims and values (the idea of correspondences, the opposition of the sacred and profane worlds, the aestheticization of the ugly and death, the desire for infinity, theomachism, etc.) and using similar poetic techniques (cyclization, associations, suggestion, grammatical constructions, sound writing, etc.), each poet, however, creates a unique artistic world. In our opinion, the main thing that is the fundamental difference between Baudelaire’s worldview platform and Sologub’s position is the possibility (for Baudelaire) or impossibility (for Sologub) of liberating a person from an illusory and deceitful material world, in which a person is doomed to suffering, and achieving the desired Ideal. In other words, Baudelaire asks the reader riddles, the answer to which is difficult to find, but possible, and Sologub puts the reader face to face with the mystery of the universe, where each new answer is not final and produces more and more new questions.

Влияние результатов Галицийской операции 1914 г. на специфику развития неорусского стиля на примере археологии и иконографии Фёдоровского городка

The conquest of Galicia, thought as a necessary stage to take the Rusins of the Austro-Hungarian Empire into Russian citizenship, influenced the archaeological and iconographic program of the Fedorov town and the Ratnaya Palata (Martial Chamber), the largest pre-revolutionary neo-Russian monuments. The article proves that the Galician operation and the Battle of Łódź had symbolic significance for the renewal of the Martial Chamber exposition, with the former standing for fearlessness in the face of both military and civil dangers. It meant the need to equip the Slavic world not only on the imperial principles of subordination of different peoples to the emperor, but also on the national pre-Peterian ones, when the Slavs, including the Rusins, had a common language and a understanding of symbols. The Battle of Łódź meant a miracle to which even enemies submit. Both ideas, “peace” and “miracle”, turned out to be key in the development of a complex iconographic program of paintings and interior of the Fedorov town, so that its real meaning became clear only after the Emperor had visited the construction site and talked to the artists. The analysis of the original documents on this visit, including the recordings of the tsar’s dialogues, as well as the insightful contemporary reflections by the poet Stratanovsky, demonstrates that the Fedorov town represents a complex dialectical synthesis of imperial and national styles, different from the national romanticism, which makes the reduction of the Fedorov town to national romanticism untenable. On the contrary, the images and symbols from the architecture and books related to the first Romanovs were updated by the First World War. The new program of Slavic unification differed from the periovious projects and required a special approach to the unification. Quoting the contexts of religiosity of Russian symbolism and the influence of artistic impressionism clarifies this program and specifies how Nicholas II thought the future of the Russian people, including Rusins, shortly before the political catastrophe of February 1917.

Жанрово-стильова специфіка камерно-вокальної творчості С. Василенка

The purpose of the work is to identify the poetical of S. Vasilenko’s vocal heritage in the context of the traditions of Russian musical culture of the first half of the twentieth century. The methodological basis of the work is based on general scientific and special methods, among which the intonational-stylistic methods inherited from B. Asafiev and his followers, historical-cultural, genre-style, biographical, analytic-musicological methods in their complex application are essential, which together makes it possible to study poetics of the chamber-vocal heritage of S. Vasilenko in the context of Russian culture of the first half of the twentieth century. The scientific novelty of the work is determined by the fact that for the first time the genre-style specificity of the chamber-vocal creativity of S. Vasilenko is generalized in the foreshortening of the general evolutionary paths of the development of Russian musical culture of the indicated period. Conclusions. S. Vasilenko is an outstanding composer, conductor, teacher, folklorist, musician-educator who inherited the best genre and stylistic traditions of Russian music of the past. At the same time, he made a valuable contribution to its subsequent development within the framework of the culture of the first half of the twentieth century and the genre-style attitudes of Russian Art Nouveau. The sphere of chamber-vocal creativity of S. Vasilenko (over 200 compositions), covering all periods of his creative activity, has absorbed the most characteristic genre-style tendencies inherent in the composer’s creative method, focused on the academic direction of Russian culture and music of the first half of the twentieth century. The early period of vocal creativity of S. Vasilenko is characterized, on the one hand, by the inheritance of the best traditions of Russian chamber-vocal lyric poetry of the 19th century, including the traditions of P. Tchaikovsky and N. Rimsky- Korsakov (romances op. 2). At the same time, the poetics of his vocal work is closely connected with the traditions of Russian symbolism, and until the early 20s appeals to the worldview and poetry of A. Blok, S. Gorodetsky, V. Bryusov, K. Balmont, I. Bunin, M. Lokhvitskaya, I. Severyanin, S. Soloviev and others (op. 13, 16, 26, 40, etc.). The 20s in the activities of S. Vasilenko are also marked by a growing interest in folklore, international and oriental topics. The above is consistent with his compositions “Japanese melodies” (op. 49 a, 1924), “Hindu melodies” (op. 51), as well as with the cycle “3 Sinhalese melodies” (op. 55, 1926), etc. Finally, in mature period of creativity S. Vasilenko at a new stage of his creative evolution returns to the traditions of Russian folklore, creating two cycles based on adaptations of Russian folk songs (op. 61, 107), focused on a wide genre spectrum – from the ancient Slavic archaic and epic-historical songs, buffoonery up to ditties.

Полилог религии, культуры и философии: интерпретация Д.С. Мережковского

The article is devoted to the analysis of the creative activity of Dmitry Merezhkovsky (1865–1941), the “literary source” of the time of the “spiritual turning point” (N. Berdyaev). It is pointed out that Merezhkovsky, being one of the initiators and theorists of Russian symbolism and a well-known representative of the Russian religious renaissance, did not want to limit himself to either “symbolist” or national frameworks, as he always “claimed more: leadership, literary and artistic, religious and philosophical, social and political” (M. Vish­nyak). This kind of attitude to creative work initially assumed an intercultural approach, which obviously implied a polylogue of religion, culture and philosophy. Beginning with the justification of a “new direction” in art – symbolism, or “subjective-artistic criticism” regarded as a genuine method of philosophizing and searching for the religious meaning of culture, Me­rezh­kovsky widely developed in his works the themes of the conjunction of culture and revolution, the contradictions of culture and civilization, “religious community”, the need for re­li­gious, moral and cultural revival of society by forming the Universal Church. These and other themes were immediately included by him in a wide cultural and historical-philo­so­phical contexts, which enabled Merezhkovsky to make a deeper analysis and provide a more interesting interpretation. It is suggested that intercultural philosophical position of Merezhkovsky was formed as a result of his recognition of uniqueness and importance of each philosophical system and tradition. A conclusion is made that this helped the Russian thinker to reach an essentially new level of philosophical dialogism, which can be regarded as an example of intercultural polylogue.

Neo-Kantian motifs in the works of A. Bely

The article is devoted to the work of A. Bely in the development of Russian culture in the late 19th - early 20th centuries. Attention is paid to the motives of the creative path of the philosopher-poet, who created the basis of Russian symbolism. By analyzing the cultural and historical manifestations of the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, reflection in the works of art and science workers, an assessment of the severity of symbolism for the development of Russian philosophy and the field of art in general. In the process of the formation of symbolism in Bely's work, neo-Kantian motives are clearly revealed in the formulation of the problem of the difference between subjective perception and the essence of the object of perception in itself, that is, distinguishing between the symbol and the signified. By comparing Bely's views with the concept of sophiology and anthroposophy, distinct Kantian positions of the philosopher-poet stand out. These include the schematism of space and time, an attempt to apply the categories of natural science to the field of philosophy of art, as well as the demarcation of the immanent and the transcendent. Despite the fact that the ideas of the philosopher-poet in their form have similar positions with the anthroposophy of R. Steiner and with the ideas of V. Solovyov, however, the key content is the neo-Kantian methodology of "critical deepening" of thought and its rationalization. The actualization of Bely's creativity and the issue of his neo-Kantian motives is carried out by attracting research from related branches of knowledge on the principles of interdisciplinary consideration and implementation of an integrated approach.

Готическая традиция в литературе в аспекте интермедиального анализа

The article is devoted to the insufficiently studied problem of using intermedial analysis for studying the Gothic tradition in the literature of Russian symbolism (on the example of V. Brusov’s and F. Sologub’s works). We focus our attention on transition a visual image or a medieval art motive from one sign system to another. We analyze how medieval cultural categories correspond to the chronotope and figurative system in the Gothic novels of the 18th - early 19th century. It is concluded that the Symbolists refer to the visual images of the Gothic novel not only as elements of tradition, but also as categories of the culture of the Middle Ages.

Из воспоминаний Л.Я. Гуревич о журнале «Северный вестник». Статья вторая

The journal “Sevemy Vestnik”, around which relatively young Petersburg writers — A. Volynsky, N. Minsky, D. Merezhkovsky and Z. Gippius, F. Sologub — were grouped in the last years of the 19th century, was of exceptional importance for the early stage of Russian Symbolism. The article continues the previously begun publication of new materials from the archive of the publisher (since 1891) of the “Severny Vestnik”, Lyubov Gurevich. Two documents from the funds of the RGALI and the Manuscript Division of the IRL RAS — “Lovely Memories” and a note on the reorganization of the journal (1897–1898) — are presented. They are a kind of factual basis and addition to her article “Symbolism of the 1890s and the journal 'Severny Vestnik'” (presented in the first part of the publication: Literaturnyi fakt, no. 1 (19), 2021). Gurevich tells about the financial, organizational and censorship difficulties of keeping the journal and about complicated relationships in the circle of its authors and editors. The appendix contains Gurevich’s letter dated 1891 to her father where she admits that she is attracted by journalism and literary work “more than anything else”, and asks for financial help to buy out the collapsing journal and become the publisher of “Severny Vestnik” herself. Documents introduced into scientific circulation allow expanding the range of sources for studying the history of journalism and early Russian modernism.

Centaury Andrieja Biełego

Andrei Bely, like most Russian symbolists, absorbed and transposed mythical characters and stories into his work, especially those born in the ancient times. Centaurs derive their origins from Greek mythology and are most often presented as hybrid creatures (half man, half animal). In Bely’s view, they become a symbol of the dual nature of man who struggles with suffering resulting from the simultaneous belonging to two worlds: humans and animals, matter and senses, spirituality and dark urges. In Bely’s works, the image of these mythical animals serves as an element of an artistic game with the recipient (by analogy to the “games of centaurs”), in the course of which it becomes possible to read the artist’s attitude to the myth about these animals, to the surrounding reality, and finally – to oneself. The myth itself reveals its philosophical, psychological and hermeneutical potential. That is why in Bely’s works the presence of centaurs has a multidimensional character, built on the interpenetration of the tame and the alien, tempered and wild, real and cosmic. All this determines the transgressive quality of the myth of centaurs in the work of the Russian symbolist.

Specific of artistic world modeling in the Russian symbolism fiction: theory, trends, transpersonal models

The article is devoted to the study of the peculiar properties of artistic world modeling in the Russian symbolism fiction with an emphasis on the anthropological and ontological concepts of Man and Being, structuring the world-like novel model. The ability to identify the evolutionary dynamics of both the aesthetic and ethical-philosophical paradigm of the modernist type of artistic consciousness, identified in the context of existentialization and neo-mythologization trends, determines the relevance of the research problem. The novelty of this research is in the analysis of the author's transpersonal models of myth in Russian modernist novels at the beginning of 20th century, in terms of knowledge of the aesthetic imperative of integrity integrating text consciousness (the world as a text), personal consciousness (I-being) and ontological consciousness (being-in-me). Mythological-cultural concepts of Christological philosophy of D. Merezhkovsky, the semiosphere of V. Bryusovs novel The Fiery Angel, mythological codes of the anti-utopian novel-myth L. Andreev, reflecting the most important categories and attitudes of the transpersonal anthropological and religious-philosophical concepts of the new religious consciousness of Russian symbolism became the object of this study.

Russian symbolism on social aesthetics

This article is a review of the book Literature and Religious-Philosophical Thought of the Late 19th - First Third of the 20th Century. To the 165th anniversary of V.S. Solovyov (Book 2. E.A. Takho-Godi (Ed.). Moscow: Vodoley; 2018) published with the support of A.F. Losev house-museum and the journal Solovyov Studies . The authors analyze the philosophical theories of the key Russian thinkers of the Silver Age, primarily the symbolists, which focus on such issues as the fate of the Russian society, the place of man in the world, cultural values, social aspects of religion, life-creation, and aesthetic understanding of social-cultural reality. The review shows the inner logic of the book based on the alternation of philosophical and literary approaches, and its main line - from personalities (V.S. Solovyov, V.F. Ern, D.S. Merezhkovsky, F.M. Dostoevsky, M.N. Katkov) and their contribution to the national philosophy and culture to the trends of the era of historical and ideological changes. The interdisciplinary approach of the book is the result of the joint work of scientific schools and generations of researchers from different countries. The books methodology is based on the integrative approach of social aesthetics - the tool of philosophy of integral knowledge and unity, which can be applied to the field of social knowledge.

«Snovidets Mnemoziny»: dreaming of Mnemosyne: Evgeny Boratynsky’s poetry in Vyacheslav Ivanov’s aesthetics

The article is devoted to the Russian Symbolist poet Vyacheslav Ivanov’s perception of Evgeny Boratynsky’s poetry. The specific focus is on Ivanov’s interest concerning the way Boratynsky’s lyrics relate to his philosophy of art. The article examines various types of lyrics in which Ivanov echoes Boratynsky’s poetry. One of these is a revival of the genre of “friendly epistles,” a genre that was popular in Russian poetry of the Golden Age. In poems of this type, Ivanov uses some of the artistic principles typical of “Pushkin era” poems and refers to Boratynsky’s works. The article features Ivanov’s address to Boratynsky in the poem “Before Boratynsky’s portrait,” which serves Ivanov as a means to express his main aesthetic concepts. The article concludes with a suggestion that one of the reasons why these poets belong to the tradition of “the poetry of thought” is the influence of Goethe on both.

ИМАТРА И ПЕННАЯ «РЕКА ЗАБВЕНЬЯ» В ЭКФРАСИСАХ НАЧАЛА XX ВЕКА

The article discusses the possible influence of the optical effects of the painting by F. Matveyev “Imatra Falls in Finland” on the imagery of Russian poetry from I. Annensky to B. Pasternak. It is shown that although Imatra was the closest natural landmark to St. Petersburg, the imagery associated with it could be not just an ekphrasis of the picture, but a “complex ekphrasis”, which included the features of the museum hall in which the picture was exhibited. The focus is on how the poetics of ekphrasis changes when other types of movement are taken into account, apart from the simple revitalization of still images. The analysis of the movement in this picture and the use of sources relevant to Russian Symbolist and world classic poetry, primarily Ovid and Verlaine, make it possible to clarify the specifics of some futuristic images of Russian poetry, such as a comparison of sea and beer in B. Pasternak’s “Themes and Variations”.

Герметический роман В. Емельянова «Свидание Джима»

The article analyses poetics and sources of the novel Jim’s Date by V. Yemelyanov. The author comes to the conclusion that the high-principled artistic framework of the novel is based on the aesthetic and philosophical concepts of the Russian symbolism and on the mystic premises of the Masonic doctrine.

Boris Pasternak: “In Everything I Want to Get to the Very Essence”

The article considers the poetic heritage of B.L. Pasternak in the paradigm of the unity of philosophy and literary creativity as a peculiarity of Russian culture. The author demonstrates that dominant feature of Pasternak’s works is “syncretism of the picturer and the pictured” and argues that the basis of this syncretism is in the unity of thought and feeling, of reflection and mental mood, metaphors and artistic associations, poetic language and symbolic forms; and each time this unity takes its own special, unique forms. This aesthetic polyphonism has its own meaning and value basis. Early Pasternak was influenced by Russian symbolism, by its interpretation of creativity as knowledge and by the interpretation of knowledge as creativity as well as the idea of harmony between these two manifestations of human spirit. The author demonstrates that the foundation of this poetic credo is in the recognition of life as the medium of beauty and harmony, this credo allowed him to see universal meanings that unite people in a torn world, to save “his face as a poet” in spite of all the misfortunes of his personal fate and the tragic events of his time.

Visual image in the aesthetics of Alexander Blok: phenomenology problems

The article is dedicated to the insufficiently studied problem of the visual image that was formed in the creative aesthetical discourse of Alexander Blok. His articles “Colours and Words” (1905), “Works of Vyacheslav Ivanov” (1905), “About the Present Condition of the Russian Symbolism” (1910), “In Memory of Vrubel” (1910) and also exhibition overviews are considered in the article. The main task of the research is to reveal that the visual image is a way to represent thoughts of symbolist poet, and it is also a model of visual perception, which is characteristic for the modernist culture. The analysis methods are receptive criticism, intermediality and phenomenology of E. Husserl and M. Merleau-Ponty. The reasons why Alexander Blok paid close attention to the works of such painters as A. Böcklin, M. Vrubel, V. Kandinsky and others are analysed in the article. The examples demonstrate how the principles of Italian painters (Fra Angelico, Giovanni Bellini, Leonardo da Vinci) reflected in his aesthetics. It is indicated that the visual image in Blok’s articles is symbolic and metaphysical representation of the aesthetic idea. Blok uses various types of unclassical ecphrasis that have a function of visual codes. Moreover, he creates a type of “fictitious” ecphrasis as a “landscape of consciousness” and uses linguistic contamination. The conclusion is made that the new understanding of art emerges in Blok’s aesthetics, which was characteristic for modernist poetics of the beginning of the XX century. The function of the visual image is representation of symbolic forms (space, colour, composition, things, nature, body dynamics) as phenomena of consciousness and ways to express ideas.

Метафорична структурність поезії символістів (на матеріалі віршів В’яч. Іванова)

The aim of this article is to show that metaphorical and symbolic word in the symbolist poetics are the interdependent phenomena, and to reveal how a poem becomes symbolic through the realization of a certain metaphorical structure, based on the analysis of V. Ivanov's poems. The study of Ivanov's work “Dve stihii v russkom simvolisme” (“Two Elements in the Russian Symbolism”) has led to the conclusion that the author’s thinking is personalized and creates entities; in the numerous phenomena of existence, he sees a single personal entity. Thus arises the semantic perspective of defining a single essence through a series of comparisons. This is why a number of Ivanov's poems are based on multiple metaphor, a framework of definitions expressed in metaphors. In each of the analyzed works (“Ulov” – “The catch”, “Alpiyskiy rog” – “Alpine horn”, the cycle “Lira i os’” – “Lyre and axis”), the poet establishes several levels of metaphorization, where the real and the ideal planes are constantly exchanging places. The metaphorical comparison of different objects builds transitions from one level to another. Thus, a kind of synthesis emerges, things become transparent, flexible, and they are permeated by upward currents. It is this dynamic symbol of existence that makes it possible to accumulate and revive the past content, and interact with the world cultural context. It has a certain structure – a crystal, whose facets are separate and intrinsically valuable, but deep down they are united, and this unity lives in each of the facets. The detected structure also expresses the main tendency of Ivanov's creative work: the contemplation of an immediate feeling, an instinct, i.e. a heroic attempt to break through to a sense of the unity of everything with everything through rational comprehension and analysis.

Russia and the Metaphor of the Seed: The Case of M. A. Vološin’s “Posev” Poems

ABSTRACT In this article I analyze the biblical intertextual connections of two poems by M. A. Vološin from the war and revolutionary period, both titled “Posev.” The poems are intertextually connected through the parable of the wheat and the weeds from the Gospel of Matthew. When read side by side, the interplay of their structures is discernible, and this, I argue, exposes a hidden signification in the poems. The poems’ symbolical meanings are interconnected also on a deeper level. I show how the poems render Russia’s destiny and future through some of the philosophical ideas and movements that impacted on the Russian Symbolist movement, such as myth-creation, theurgy, the Russian idea and anthroposophy. In particular I focus on the ‘seed metaphor’ that is central in both poems. In this metaphor Rudolf Steiner’s anthroposophical predictions are merged with the messianism of the Russian idea as expressed in its perspective on Russia’s destiny. I argue that the poems, written within the context of the Symbolists’ myth-creating program, can be interpreted as attempts at theurgic art with the aim of inciting a national spiritual revival shaped by the Russian idea and by Steiner’s predictions about the Russians as the “people of Christ,” leading humanity’s spiritual evolution. 1