The Russian Silver Age: Dionysianism Versus Principium Individuationis

2020 ◽  
pp. 21-28
Author(s):  
Oleg A. Matveychev
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Silver Age ◽  
Russian Culture ◽  
Important Idea ◽  
Russian Intelligentsia ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Cultural Reality ◽  
Original Concept

The article examines the existence, development and historical fate of the famous Nietzschean antithesis “Apollonian and Dionysian” in Russian culture of the late 19th - early 20th century. The author considers reasons for the true triumph of Nietzsche in Russia during the Silver Age and the peculiarities of the reception of his ideas by the Russian intelligentsia. The emphasis in the work is on the ideas of V. Ivanov - the main guide, herald and living embodiment of the idea of Dionysianism in Russia (the works of almost all other authors who addressed this topic were written under his influence). The main stages of the formation of his original concept of the cult of Dionysus, perceived by Ivanov as a primarily a religious phenomenon, are analyzed (the thinker refuses to use the concepts “Apollonian” and “Dionysian” as metaphors to describe a particular cultural reality). Ivanov's most important idea was the presentation of the cult of Dionysus and the “religion of the suffering god” as a “preparation” for Christianity. In the "restoration" of the Dionysian cult, Ivanov sees the way to overcome the crisis of the modern world, based on the principium individuationis.

scholarly journals “Not a Golden Antique”: Experience of Negative Reception of the “Estate Culture” at the Turn of the 19th–20th Centuries

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 252-269
Author(s):  
Olga A. Bogdanova
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Golden Age ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Silver Age ◽  
Russian Culture ◽  
Organic Part ◽  
Andrey Bely ◽  
The One ◽  
Number Of Authors

In contrast to passeistic and neo-mythological trends in the representation of the “estate culture” in the so-called Silver age, a number of works of that time follow another line — the one of aesthetic, civilizational, and socio-psychological critique. The latter tendency dates back to the serfdom period (A.I. Herzen, N.S. Leskov, L.N. Tolstoy, etc.). Pan-aesthetics, one of the main trends of Russian culture of the early 20th century, prompted the mentioned aesthetic critique. A number of authors questioned and rejected the idealization of the Golden age of “estate culture”, which in the Silver age claimed to be the “national ideal.” This is how the polemical image of “not a golden antique” appears in the works of I.F. Annensky, Andrey Bely, N.S. Gumilev, G.I. Chulkov, A.N. Tolstoy, etc. In addition, the structure of the “estate topos” includes civilizational critique of the “estate culture” as organic part of the Russian national-patriarchal world (A.I. Ertel, A.P. Chekhov, I.S. Shmelev, etc.). The article examined the mentioned negative connotations of the “estate topos” on the example of the story by Alexey N. Tolstoy “Mishuka Nalymov (Zavolzhye).”

“The last chord of the Silver Age”: science and culture in Crimea in 1920

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (10-4) ◽  
pp. 4-14
Author(s):  
Vladimir Kalinovsky ◽  
Alexander Puchenkov
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
The South ◽  
Silver Age ◽  
Russian Culture ◽  
Short Period ◽  
The Crimea ◽  
Science And Culture ◽  
History Of ◽  
Russian Intelligentsia

This article is devoted to the development of science and culture in the short period of the Wrangel Crimea - 1920. At this time, the brightest figures of Russian culture of that time worked on the territory of the small Peninsula: O. E. Mandelstam, M. A. Voloshin, B.D. Grekov, G.V. Vernadsky, V.I. Vernadsky and others. The article provides an overview of the life and activities of the Russian intelligentsia in 1920 in the Crimea, based on materials of periodicals as the most important source for studying the history of the Civil war in the South of Russia whose value is to be fully evaluated.

scholarly journals IDEAS ABOUT NATIONAL IDENTITY IN RUSSIAN LITERARY REVIEW, HISTORICAL AND LITERARY DISCOURSES OF THE 19TH – EARLY 20TH CENTURY

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 680-685
Author(s):  
Viacheslav Krylov
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
National Literature ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Silver Age ◽  
Individual Variations ◽  
Russian Literary ◽  
Further Development

This article analyses the evolution of literary reflections among the representatives of the 19th-early 20th-century trends and schools where ideas on national literature distinctness were formed. The study specifies both an invariant of the notions of national literature identity and individual variations that did not find further development in literary self-awareness. The essays of the 1870-80s suggest that there was formed an image of the original literature opposed to European literature. A new impetus to the problem of national identity in literature was attached to the era of the Silver Age; however, the analysis of the literary review, historical and literary discourses of the turn of the century leads to the conclusion that it was in this era that the ideology of literary centrism was further strengthened, and the exclusive status of Russian literature in culture received detailed reflection.

scholarly journals “True Heirs to a Heroic Russian Past” or “Russians in Name Only”: Sitka Creoles as Seen by the Late Nineteenth Century Russian Orthodox Clergy

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 12-37
Author(s):  
Sergei Kan
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Alaska Native ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Russian Orthodox ◽  
Russian Culture ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Late Nineteenth

The paper examines the criticism levelled against the Creoles of Sitka (persons of Russian and Alaska Native descent) by the Russian Orthodox priests who came to minister among them in the late 19th-early 20th century. These clergymen accused their parishioners not only of immorality but also of not being truly Russian, as far as their language and culture were concerned. By focusing on this criticism, the paper explores the symbolic significance of Alaska’s Russian colonial and missionary history and its legacy in the conservative nationalist ideology of the Russian Orthodox clergy. Particular attention is paid to the causes to which this clergy attributed the decline of the Russian culture and devotion to Orthodoxy among the Creole population of this frontier American/Alaskan town.

scholarly journals Postmodern Tendencies in the Russian Poetry of the “Silver Age”

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 124-140
Author(s):  
Ihor Chornyi ◽  
Viktoriia Pertseva ◽  
Viktoriia Chorna ◽  
Olena Horlova ◽  
Oleksandra Shtepenko ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Creative Thinking ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Silver Age ◽  
Evolutionary Features ◽  
Russian Poetry ◽  
And Performance ◽  
First Time

For the first time, the article analyses certain aspects of Russian poetry of the “Silver Age” in order to identify the rudiments or features which are characteristic of the postmodern creative paradigm. It is noted that a number of poets almost do not have any postmodernist tendencies. Despite the fact it is proved that postmodernism denies the personality-centric and aesthetically oriented concept of modernism, it nevertheless arose on the basis of modernism and has sharpened evolutionary features formulated in the first half of the 20th century. The article aims to prove a hypothesis that arises in the authors during a preliminary perceptual reading of the poets` works of the “Silver Age”: in the early 20th century. Sporadically and consistently in individual authors can be observed irony, play, reconstruction and performance as precursor of postmodernist creative thinking. Specialties of the Russian poetry of the “Silver Age”, which directly correlate with postmodernist tendencies of the second half of the 20th century is not a description itself, but the realization of reality, ambivalence, as well as following the linguistic and figurative, conceptual, motive levels of gradual transitions between the paradigms of “symbolism – modernism” and “modernism – postmodernism”. The international significance of the article is that the material of one of the Eastern European literatures has proved the existence of postmodern (quasi-postmodern) features in the first half of the 20th century for the first time, which can serve as a deeper research in the field of literary typology, continuity; culturology and anthropology.

scholarly journals The feminine image of Russia in the religious and philosophical writings by Russian thinkers at the turn of the 20th century

2021 ◽  
Vol 103 ◽  
pp. 01041
Author(s):  
Arcady G. Sadovnikov ◽  
Alina E. Korzheva ◽  
Farrukh Begidjon Khudoidodzoda
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Silver Age ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Russian Culture ◽  
The Feminine ◽  
Philosophical Writings ◽  
The Universe

The article looks at the versions of the feminine image of Russia in the religious and philosophical reflections of the Russian thinkers who worked during the Silver Age (the period of Russian culture covering approximately 1890–1917): Vladimir Solovyov, Nikolai Berdyaev, and Sergei Bulgakov. Special attention is paid to the balance between the male and female principles, which are endowed with certain characteristics in different works by Russian thinkers, not only from the perspective of human nature but also in terms of the nature of Russian culture and mentality, as well as the cosmic nature of the universe. Analysis of the religious and philosophical pursuit of the Silver Age relating to the feminine image of Russia allows the authors to specify the ideas of the characteristics of femininity engrained in the Russian culture and clarify the role of this pursuit in the development of the reflexive Russian thought directed towards becoming aware of these characteristics. The belief about the salvatory mission carried out by the feminine aspect of the human and cosmic nature distinctively identified in the religious and philosophical writings by the Russian thinkers belonging to the Siver Age requires further study. The research has been conducted within the framework of the symbolic direction of cultural studies with the help of comparative analysis, the method of theoretical reconstruction, and problematic-logical, functional, and systemic approaches. These methods allowed the authors to specify the problematic field of the research and define the main concepts to examine the statements about the feminine aspect of Russian culture by different authors as a unified system of forms aimed at the comprehension of the value and symbolic foundation of the national ethnic culture.

scholarly journals The Metamorphoses of Impressionism at the Turn of the Centuries

ICONI ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 85-96
Author(s):  
Alexander I. Demchenko ◽  
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Late Stage ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Silver Age ◽  
Artistic Creativity

The concept of the “Silver Age” is usually correlated with certain phenomena of the Russian artistic culture of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. However, it is absolutely clear that this was not a purely national phenomenon and it is appropriate to spread its “geography” onto analogous artefacts of the entire European space of that time. Upon close examination it turns out that many aesthetic components of the late 19th and early 20th century developed under the auspices of the “Silver Age”: late Romanticism, Symbolism, the so-called Decadence, the Moderne Style, etc., — everything which were characterized with brightly expressed personalized accents, individual-subjective predilections and various degrees of aesthetization of artistic creativity. The author of the article considers that similar assertions are also applicable in regard to many sides of Impressionism — one of the most infl uential artistic directions of these years, especially in its late stage. But fi rst of all the article specifi es certain questions of evolution of this direction and its substance, since we must frequently confront with an excessively expansive understanding of this conception.

scholarly journals Mythological Birds in the Culture of the Silver Age: Revival of the Archaic

2014 ◽  
pp. 128-135
Author(s):  
Elena V. Shakhmatova
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Visual Artists ◽  
Silver Age ◽  
Russian Culture ◽  
Russian Art

Deals with some trends in Russian art at the beginning of the 20th century. The author argues that the Archaic revival of the Silver Age reflected the active denial of contemporaneity by the artistic elite. The national folklore and mythology representing the Indo­European roots of Russian culture became popular among the visual artists while the mythological birds Humayun, Sirin, Alkonost, the Swan Princess and the Firebird were pictured by Viktor Vasnetsov, Mikhail Vrubel, and Ivan Bilibin; their images were created in the verses by Alexander Blok, in Igor Stravinsky’s music, and in choreographic masterpieces by Mikhail Fokine and Anna Pavlova.

scholarly journals The prophet, the mother, the avenger: An examination of Gaia's cult worship and the "bricolage" in her myth

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Eilish Draper
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Critical Appraisal ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Greek Version ◽  
Positive Evidence ◽  
Mother Goddess ◽  
Mother Figure ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Mother Earth

<p>This thesis is a study of the cult of the Greek goddess Gaia (Gē). Gaia’s cult has long been interpreted by scholars though the lens of her mythical roles. She featured in literature as the mother of the Titans, as an oracular goddess at Delphi, and as the mythical mother of Erichthonios; she is also a force that watched over curses and oaths. Her cult has been most strongly associated with Delphi, where she was part of the Previous Owners myth, a tradition that made her the primary goddess at Delphi before Apollo took over. She is also strongly associated with Athens, where almost all of our literary evidence comes from.  Early 20th century scholarship characterised Gaia as a universally-worshipped “Mother Earth” figure; more specifically, she has been identified as the Greek version of the Anatolian Mother Goddess, Kybele. Gaia’s cult worship as an oracular goddess and as a mother figure is overstated, and I argue that these associations are examples of confirmation bias. In this thesis, I examine the sources for both myth and cult to establish where the boundaries lie between the two, both through re-examination of the primary sources and through a critical appraisal of secondary discussions.  To compare, I examine the positive evidence for Gaia’s cult, with a particular focus on the epigraphical evidence, including a 5th century BCE statue base and inscriptions from the 4th century BCE that describe a ἱερόν of Gaia at Delphi and Attic deme calendars that provide sacrifices to Gaia, some of which are expensive. Further evidence is offered by Pausanias and Plutarch, who attest to a sanctuary of Gaia at Delphi in the 1st and 2nd centuries CE, cults of Gē Kourotrophos and Gē Themis in Athens, and other cults of Gaia elsewhere. I also explore the significance of Gaia as the mother of Ericthonios, the autochthonous founder of Athens, in myth and Athenian literature.  I conclude that Gaia was not worshipped at Delphi before the 5th century BCE. Gaia was receiving cult worship in Athens from the 5th century BCE in the form of deme sacrifices. Also in Athens, Gaia’s worship as Gē Themis appears arounds the 4th century BCE, while Pausanias attests to a temple of Gē Kourotrophos on the acropolis. Before the time of Pausanias, Kourotrophos appears to be a separate deity. Finally, I conclude that Gaia rarely receives cult worship under the epithet “Meter” and cannot be identified as the Greek version of Anatolian Kybele.</p>

World of Art (МИР ИССКУСТВА)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Bowlt
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Richard Wagner ◽  
Arts And Crafts ◽  
Arts And Crafts Movement ◽  
Silver Age ◽  
Russian Culture ◽  
Ballets Russes ◽  
Cultural Life ◽  
The World ◽  
East And West

Born in St. Petersburg on the threshold of the 20th century, the World of Art group of artists, writers, and musicians was a primary representative of the Russian Silver Age, supporting the Symbolist notions of artistic sythesism, independence of the work of art from social and political prerequisites, the organic interdependence of the fine and applied arts, and the artist’s right to appreciate and interpret ideas and motifs from many cultures, past and present, East and West, primitive and sophisticated. Led by Sergei Diaghilev, internationally acclaimed for his creation and supervision of the Ballets Russes (1909–1929), the World of Art published its own deluxe art review (1898–1904), organized exhibitions both at home and abroad, and made every attempt to place modern Russian culture in its European context. To this end, the review published illustrations of French Post-Impressionism and the English Arts and Crafts movement, essays on Richard Wagner, translations of French poetry and drama, and reports on cultural life in Moscow, Paris, London, and elsewhere.

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