Mysticism" and "Black Death Bill" of the Russian Literature: V.A. Zhukovsky in I.F. Annensky's critical essays

The article considers the role of Zhukovsky’s heritage in the formation of I.F. Annensky’s view on the genesis of the three important historical-literary juxtapositions in the turn of the 20th century: symbolism vs. Parnas, mysticism vs. populism and the classics vs. modernism. Perception of Zhukovsky’s aesthetics and artistic practice was being realized by Annensky in his critical essays, private correspondence and poetical works. Musing on the origin of the Russian literature, Annensky underlines the crucial difference between the West-European and Russian cultural paradigms. As the modern European poetry was formed under the great influence of classical Greek and Roman literature, Horatio’s lyrics in particular, Russian literature originates in different circumstances which the author himself considers as negative. The first of them which determined the Russian literary development was, in Annensky's opinion, the spirit of Byzantine literature: mystic in its content and ascetic in spirit. The second "gene" of Russian poetry and fiction is the "service" literature created by Peter I which became the Tsar's weapon in his activity as a reformer. The understanding of Russian historical-literary process and the search for cultural factors that have designed the logic of its development were of Annensky's interest not only from the academic point of view but they also allowed him to understand the sense of the current literary situation and its "aesthetic shortcomings". The two main features of the culture of the beginning of the 20th century were specifically criticized by Annensky: mysticism and sociality - both derived from, accordingly, Byzantine heritage and Peter's reformism. The notion on the "service" nature of the Russian literature referred to the social trends in contemporary literature clearly represented in the prose of the populists ("narodniks"). The polemic addressee of the mystic "Byzantine spirit" conception was not, of course, only classical authors, but Annensky's contemporaries as well - the theorists and practicians of the Russian symbolism. Ascetic and mystical Byzantine influence was considered by Annensky as the most dangerous threat. Those writers who perished under the burden of mysticism were metaphorically included by the poet into the "Black Death Bill". Thus the pantheon of Russian classical authors was compared to the record of the names of the dead for the church commemoration. It is significant to note that both short and full versions of Russian literature "Black Death Bill" start with Zhukovsky's name. Starting the "Black Death Bill" of the dead Russian writers with the name of Zhukovsky as the ballad-writer, Annensky, on the one hand, aspires to leave this check-list personally, but on the other hand, he actually appropriates topoi of this tradition and represents them in his verse and epistolary heritage where they encode images and events exactly in the perspective of "Black Death Bill". The "ballad fear", being one of the most illustrative genre elements for the poet, is duplicated in his texts along the two parallel lines: ironical presentation of mystical-poetical horror and the truly tragic element of life in its routine and material form.

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