Institute of Philology of the Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences
Monuments of Folklore Siberian Journal of Philology Critique and Semiotics
Yazyki i fol’klor korennykh narodov Sibiri Syuzhetologiya i Syuzhetografiya
Institute of Philology of
the Siberian Branch of
Russian Academy of Sciences
По-русски
  
Sibirskii Filologicheskii Zhurnal (Siberian Journal of Philology)
По-русски
Archive
Editorial board
Our ethical principles
Submission Requirements
Process for Submission & Publication
List of Typos
Search:

Author:

and/or Keyword:

Article

Name: Humanistic tendencies in the artistic and aesthetic system of Z. N. Gippius in her Petersburg Diaries of 1914–1919

Authors: Lilya M. Shumskaya, Elena I. Biliutenka, Iryna K. Komarova

Yanka Kupala State University of Grodno, Grodno, Belarus; BIP-University of Law and Socio-informational Technologies, Grodno Branch, Grodno, Belarus

In the section Study of literature

Issue 2, 2023Pages 112-123
UDK: 821. 162.1DOI: 10.17223/18137083/83/9

Abstract:

The Petersburg diaries (“Blue Book,”, “Black Notebooks,” “Black Book,” and “Gray Notepad”) document the attitude of Z. N. Gippius to the events related to the historical upheavals in Russia in the early 20th century. Searching for new ideas about personal freedom and choice in the epoch of historical cataclysms, the writer asserts the principles of new spirituality allowing one withstand the great upheavals of the era and achieve true freedom, found in God as a guarantor of the harmonious personality development. This study has established that the writer solves the problems suggested in the diaries by comprehending the fate of Russia during the First World War and the February and October revolutions of 1917 and searching for new humanistic ideals. She condemns the destructive nature of the revolution that causes the loss of moral ideals. Of particular relevance to the writer is the assertion of a specific, effective and practical humanism that takes into account the moral component of human life, approves the moral way of life, and combines practical actions with a focus on the individual as the ultimate goal. For Gippius, the ideal is embodied in the Russian intelligentsia with humanistic ability to sympathy, compassion, sacrifice, and sanctity and potential to withstand the political cataclysms of Russia. The aesthetic findings of Gippius in her Petersburg diaries embrace the inclusion of various associative chains into the forms of auto-documentary literature, enrichment of particular historical images with universal symbols, and synthesis of lyrical self-expression and an epic worldview.

Keywords: Z. N. Gippius, literary diary, knowledge of God, the fate of Russia, revolution, intelligentsia, freedom, artistic consciousness

Bibliography:

Berdyaev N. A. Russkaya ideya [Russian idea]. St. Petersburg, Azbuka-klassika, 2008, 318 р.

Bogomolov N. A. Dnevniki v russkoy kul’ture 20 veka [Diaries in Russian culture of the XX century]. In: Russkaya literatura pervoy treti 20 veka: portrety, problemy, razyskaniya [Russian literature of the first third of the 20 century: portraits, problems, research]. Tomsk, Vodoley, 1999, pp. 201– 212.

Bunin I. A. Dnevniki. 1881–1953 [Diaries]. In: Bunin I. A. Lish’ slovu zhizn’ dana… [Only a word life is given…]. Moscow, Sov. Rossiya, 1990, 365 p.

Bunin I. A. Okayannye dni. Dnevniki. Rasskazy [Cursed days. Diaries. Stories]. Moscow, Molodaya gvardiya, 1991, 335 р.

Egorov O. G. Russkiy literaturnyy dnevnik 19 veka: istoriya i teoriya zhanra [Russian literary diary of the 19th century: the history and the theory of the genre]. Moscow, Flinta, Nauka, 2003, 280 p.

Gippius Z. N. Avtobiograficheskaya zametka [Autobiographical note]. In: Russkaya literatura 20 veka (1890–1910): V 2 kn. [Russian literature of the 20 century (1890–1910): in 2 bks.]. S. A. Vengerov (Ed.). Moscow, XXI vek – Soglasie, 2000, bk. 1, pp. 171–175.

Gippius Z. N. Chernye tetradi [Black notebooks]. In: Zven’ya: Istoricheskiy al’manakh [Links: historical almanac]. N. G. Okhotina (Ed. in Ch.). Moscow, Progress, 1991b, pp. 20–173.

Ginzburg L.Ya. O psikhologicheskoi proze [About psychological prose]. Moscow, Intrada, 1999, 415 p.

Gippius Z. N. Peterburgskie dnevniki (1914–1919) [Petersburg diaries (1914–1919)]. New York, Orfey, 1982, 296 p.

Gippius Z. N. Zhivye litsa. Vospominaniya: V 2 t. [Alive faces. Memories: In 2 vols.]. Tbilisi, Merani, 1991a, vol. 2, 384 p.

Kolobaeva L. A. Russkii simvolizm [Russian symbolism]. Moscow, MSU Publ., 2000, 296 p.

Kolyadich T. M. Vospominaniya pisateley: problemy poetiki zhanra [Memoirs of writers: problems of the poetics of the genre]. Moscow, Me-gatron, 1998, 278 p.

Kozhevnikova N. A. Tipy povestvovaniya v russkoy literature 19–20 vekov [Types of narration in Russian literature of the 19th–20th centuries]. Moscow, IRYa, 1994,333 р.

Krivolapova E. M. “Preodolet’ bez uteshen’ia”: Zinaida Gippius i ee vremia [Overcome without consolation: Zinaida Gippius and her time]. Orel, Orlik, 2006, 241 p.

Polonskiy V. V. Mezhdu traditsiey i modernizmom. Russkaya literatura rubezha 19–20 vekov: istoriya, poetika, kontekst [Between tradition and modernism. Russian literature at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries: history, poetics, context]. Moscow, IMLI RAN, 2011, 472 p.

Institute of Philology
Nikolaeva st., 8, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russian Federation
+7-383-330-15-18, ifl@philology.nsc.ru
© Institute of Philology