“Hoffmann’s Text” in the Works of Russian Symbolists

The article aims to distinguish between the theory of intertextuality (R. Barthes, J. Kristeva) and the theory of supertexts (V.N. Toporov, N.E. Mednis, N.A. Kuzmina) in the concept “Hoffmann’s text of Russian literature”. The hypothesis is that “Hoffmann’s text” was formed in the first half of the 19th century in the works of A. Pogorelsky, N. Gogol, F. Dostoevsky, and others, and it consists of motifs, images, and stylistic techniques typical for the German writer, a mythologized image of the writer himself and his characters. In the Silver Age, symbolists express the totality of Hoffmann’s problems, images and stylistic techniques in the form of an ideological and thematic “Hoffmann’s complex”. The complex includes a synthesis of arts, romantic irony and grotesque, psychologism, thematization of the problem of mechanization of life and man realized in the images-symbols of a mask, a doll, a puppet, a double, and a mirror, and is characterized by the integrity of the reproduced content. Awareness of “Hoffmann’s complex” as a whole and its reinterpretation is oserved in the works of V. Bryusov, A. Blok, A. Bely, F. Sologub, Z. Gippius, D. Merezhkovsky, and others. In works of small and medium genres, one of the elements of the complex is used: doubleness (A. Bely’s “Story #2”), mirroring (Z. Gippius’ Mirrors, V. Bryusov’s In the Mirror), animating the inanimate (L. Andreev’s “Thought”). In the symbolist novel, “Hoffmann’s complex” is presented systemically (F. Sologub’s The Petty Demon, A. Bely’s Petersburg). An important aspect of the article is the analysis of the transformation of “Hoffmann’s complex” in the works of symbolists. The technique of “animating the inanimate” also applies to abstract concepts (silence, lies, thought). The image of a mirror symbolizes a departure from reality (Z. Gippius’ Mirrors, A. Bely’s Petersburg). The mask and costume gain power over the person. Hoffmann’s doubleness is manifested in symbolists’ works in the reception of the “doubling of reality” (V. Bryusov’s “Flat”, A. Bely’s Petersburg). The synthesis of arts is reflected in the attempt to connect the word with music (A. Bely’s Symphonies, Petersburg). Following Hoffmann, symbolists base their worldview on “destructive” irony. “Hoffmann’s complex” is also becoming a key element in the dramatic art of the Silver Age. Hoffmann’s irony and grotesque are transformed into self-irony and self-fertility in the comic plays of V. Solovyov. The idea of synthesis of arts formed the basis of the “musical” organization of narration in A. Bely’s Symphonies. “Hoffmann’s complex” is fully revealed in the dramatic works of A. Blok (The Puppet Show, The Rose and the Cross). Symbolist dramas of Andreev enrich the complex with new techniques (abstract concepts as acting characters). Russian literature and literary life were influenced by the active functioning of “Hoffmann’s complex” at the turn of the 20th century.

Keywords

Authors

References