Slovene (Dec 2017)
Transformations of the Hagiographic Code in The Enchanted Wanderer and the Principle of Ambivalence in the Poetics of Nikolai Leskov
Abstract
The present paper analyses and interprets the tale The Enchanted Wanderer. The story, written by Nikolai Leskov, is built on a very complex combination of different elements, primarily relating to the lives of the saints and to folklore. Hagiographical elements in this work possess ambivalent semantics. Single events from the life of the protagonist, Ivan Severʹianych Fliagin, correlate with the episodes-topoi in hagiography, while other actions are in contrast with them. The interpretation of Ivan Fliagin’s (monk Ishmael’s) fate by the narrator obviously does not coincide with the author’s vision, which is infinitely more complex. Undoubtedly, the only righteous beginning in Fliagin’s soul is the desire to sacrifice himself for the people. The life of Leskov’s hero, perceived by its non-reflective consciousness as integrity, for the ideal or so-called abstract reader is split into a series of diametrically opposed or ambivalent acts. This life should be read through different codes, primarily from hagiography and folklore (fairy and epic tales). At the same time, in the hagiographic code Ivan turns out to be both a hero and an anti-hero. The hagiographic code is inadequate to describe the personality and fate of Ivan-Ishmael: it periodically “fails” when trying to describe the life of the hero. Reality is presented by Leskov as a much richer phenomenon than literature. The Enchanted Wanderer is a work with ambivalent semantics, which is created by the interaction and interplay of different codes. The poetics of ambivalence is characteristic in general for works by this writer. In The Enchanted Wanderer it has a particularly distinct character.
