Литературный факт (Mar 2018)
“A cross over snowstorm”: Philosopher Alexander Gorsky on Alexander Blok’s poem “The Twelve”
Abstract
The introductory article and the publication introduce the academic analysis of A. Blok’s poem “The Twelve” by a famous philosopher, aesthete, and poet Alexander Konstantinovich Gorsky (1886–1943). The article, which has been preserved in Gorsky’s archive, consists of two parts. The first part was read as a report in Odessa literary and artistic society on January 23, 1919. Gorsky regards Blok as a philosophical poet whose reflection of man and history is weaved in artistic forms. He also reveals the inherent connection between “The Twelve”, which he interprets as a “lyrical drama”, and all other Blok’s oeuvre, and brilliantly demonstrates the way this poem exposes the theme of “Eternal Feminine” and its tragedy in the empirical world. Gorsky also analyses in detail the theme of “substitution”, the impotence of revolutionary action in front of natural disasters (they are embodied in images of “blizzard” and “wind”) described in the poem. In contrast to the literary critics, who consider “The Twelve” to be the apology of Bolshevism, Gorski states that in the form of indirect statements Blok shows the incompleteness and disintegration of the social ideal, proposed by Bolsheviks. As for the image of Christ, appearing in the poem’s conclusion, Gorsky interprets it metaphorically as a “stone”, which should form the foundation for the holistic ideal of a new, perfect system of life. Only Christ, who has calmed down the storms, resurrected the dead, gives impulse to genuine social action. The “Twelve” persecute Christ, but the pursuer always involuntarily follows the persecuted. And so the persecutors can turn into followers, be transformed from “Sauls” into “Pauls”. The preface to the publication gives information about the Gorsky’s biography and literary heritage as well as describes in detail the history of the philosopher’s appeals to Blok’s work.
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