Medievalism in the Short Prose of F.K. Sologub

Abstract

The article studies the reception of medieval culture in the short prose of Fyodor Sologub – the collection «The Book of Charms». The author defines the pattern of Sologub’s mediaevalism as quasi-mediaeval, since the writer’s direct contact with the original texts of the Middle Ages has not been established, and imagery is borrowed through intermediaries - Russian and European Romantics, for example, A.S. Pushkin. The key goal of Sologub is not historical reconstruction, but the creation of the «purest reality», a space where a miracle is possible, which brings together medieval images with biblical and fabulous ones. In the article it is emphasized that medieval motifs function in the general context of the 1900s’ symbolist polemic about mystical anarchism and conciliar individualism. Special attention is given to E.R. Curtius’ methodology for analyzing space and identifying cultural contacts. The author comes to the conclusion that Sologub’s medievalism is devoid of social issues and serves exclusively the goals of ambivalent poetics, obeying the will of the demiurge author. The study fits Sologub’s work into the general cultural context of the Silver Age with its tendency towards historical masquerades and reconstruction of past eras.