The Russian Prospero: The Creative Universe of Viacheslav Ivanov

Preface

My study of Viacheslav Ivanov is the most comprehensive account to date of the artistic and intellectual universe of this major Russian modernist poet, critic, and religious philosopher. Acknowledging the broad and intricate design of Ivanov’s creative endeavor, I have addressed all of the major fields and periods into which his works are customarily divided. This has allowed me to arrive at an overall interpretation of Ivanov’s oeuvre and to identify its key intersections with contemporary humanistic discourse. Moreover, my interpretation of Ivanov’s work may also prove of interest with regard to other Russian and European thinkers of his day, insofar as Ivanov was the consummate modernist. It must be admitted at the outset that Ivanov’s protean and elusive creative persona precludes any simple description of his intellectual position. At any given time he was addressing himself to colleagues and rivals in diverse spheres of Russian and European life. In addition, he was often evasive , especially regarding major discontinuities in his personal life (e.g., his marriages, frequent peregrinations, and conversion to Roman Catholicism in ), but also with respect to his underlying intellectual allegiances. While one may choose to stress either the static or dynamic aspects of Ivanov’s creative universe, its evolution over time must always be a major issue of contention. In order to achieve a balanced account of Ivanov’s Preface Man hat ihn einmal irgendwo befreit Mit jenem Ruck, mit dem man sich als Jüngling Ans Große hinriß, weg von jeder Rücksicht. [Once, somewhere, somehow, you had set him free with that sharp jolt which as a young man tore you out of your life and vaulted you to greatness.] —Rainer Maria Rilke, “Der Geist Ariel” (translated by Stephen Mitchell) ix works, I begin with an analysis of themes in his life and have endeavored throughout to observe the chronology of his ideas, indicating, as the occasion arises, how they changed over time. The major exceptions to this rule are his two books on Dionysian religion, especially Dionysus and PreDionysianism (). Ivanov’s work on Dionysus reflects a core of ideas that remained with him throughout his creative life, sometimes in tension with other major concerns and even among themselves, insofar as his conception of ancient religion flowed from diverse impulses and was applied to a range of tasks. In addition to analyses of Ivanov’s works, I consider his evolving relations with such major contemporaries as Vladimir Solovyov, Nikolai Berdiaev, Aleksandr Scriabin, and Mikhail Bakhtin. Along the way I have found it necessary and useful to clarify Ivanov’s views with reference to such figures of continental European thought as Georg Lukács, Walter Benjamin, Theodor Adorno, Tzvetan Todorov, and especially Hans-Georg Gadamer and Paul Ricoeur. I read Ivanov dynamically, both as a representative of important trends in European modernism and as a vital participant in contemporary humanistic discourse. In part  I focus on the lyric and epic modes of discourse in Ivanov’s poetry and on his corresponding use of symbol and allegory. Linking the modern lyric to tragedy, Ivanov regarded lyric poems as interventions in ritual. Extending his scheme, I interpret Ivanov’s narrative (or “epic”) works as etiological myths that are derivative of his lyric poems but productive of thought. If lyric poetry exhibits primarily symbolic images, then narrative poetry relies mostly on allegory. A particularly vivid example is Ivanov’s long poem Man, which I read as a narrative explanation of Scriabin ’s unfinished Mysterium. In part  my emphasis shifts to Ivanov’s theoretical constructions in the fields of cosmology (chapter ), aesthetics (chapter ), and history (chapter ). Here I develop Ivanov’s insights into a cogent hermeneutic theory based on his triad of terms: catharsis—mathesis—praxis. I demonstrate how Ivanov’s thought fulfills the major task of hermeneutics, which, as formulated by Paul Ricoeur, is “to reconstruct the set of operations by which a work lifts itself above the opaque depths of living, acting, and suffering, to be given by an author to readers who receive it and thereby change their acting” (:). Ivanov’s ecstatic creative psychology leads directly to a consideration of history as a continuum of human interpretive activity, as well as to a conception of art as a historical force. In part  I review Ivanov’s creative universe in his final period, when, having emigrated to Italy, he became a committed Roman Catholic and x Preface [13.58.216.18] Project MUSE (2024-04-26 02:25...