S h a p e s o f A p o c a ly p s e Arts and Philosophy in Slavic Thought Myths and taboos in Russian CultuRe Series Editor: Alyssa DinegA gillespie—University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana Editorial Board: eliot Borenstein—New York University, New York Julia BekmAn ChADAgA—Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota nancy ConDee—University of Pittsburg, Pittsburg Caryl emerson—Princeton University, Princeton Bernice glAtzer rosenthAl—Fordham University, New York marcus levitt—USC, Los Angeles Alex mArtin—University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana irene mAsing-DeliC—Ohio State University, Columbus Joe pesChio—University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee irina reyfmAn—Columbia University, New York stephanie sAnDler—Harvard University, Cambridge Shapes of Apocalypse Arts and Philosophy in Slavic Thought Edited by Andrea OppO BOSTON / 2013 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: A bibliographic record for this title is available from the Library of Congress. Copyright © 2013 Academic Studies Press All rights reserved. ISBN 978-1-61811-174-6 (cloth) ISBN 978-1-618111-968 (electronic) Book design by Ivan Grave On the cover: Konstantin Juon, “The New Planet,” 1921. Published by Academic Studies Press in 2013 28 Montfern Avenue Brighton, MA 02135, USA [email protected] www.academicstudiespress.com C ontents Foreword 7 Preface 9 Acknowledgements 15 List of Contributors 16 Part One: Philosophy Introduction 20 Andrea Oppo The Tilted Pillar: Rozanov and the Apocalypse 34 Giancarlo Baffo Salvation Without Redemption: 68 Phenomenology of (Pre-)History in Patočka’s Late Work Riccardo Paparusso Part Two: Literature The Sacrament of End. The Theme of Apocalypse 89 in Three Works by Gogol’ Vladimir Glyantz Apocalyptic Imagery 122 in Dostoevskij’s The Idiot and The Devils William J. Leatherbarrow Black Blood, White Roses: 134 Apocalypse and Redemption in Blok’s Later Poetry Irene Masing-Delić Apocalypse and Golgotha 153 in Miroslav Krleža’s Olden Days: Memoirs and Diaries 1914-1921/1922 Suzana Marjanić Part Three: Music and Visual Arts The Apocalyptic Dispersion of Light into Poetry and Music: 175 Aleksandr Skrjabin in the Russian Religious Imagination Polina Dimova From the Peredvižniki’s Realism to Lenin’s Mausoleum: 203 The Two Poles of an Apocalyptic-Palingenetic Path Chiara Cantelli Theatre at the Limit: 225 Jerzy Grotowski’s Apocalypsis cum Figuris Andrea Oppo On Apocalypse, Witches and Desiccated Trees: 244 A Reading of Andrej Tarkovskij’s The Sacrifice Alessio Scarlato List of Works Cited 265 Index 278 F oreword The system of transliteration I have used throughout this book— except where book titles or citations were taken from other sources—is the ISO/R 9 (1968) system. The reason for this choice is that, while it may be less accessible for the non-specialist reader because of its many diacritical marks, it is more suitable to the specific needs of this collection. It was necessary, in fact, to standardize names and references taken from a variety of Slavic languages as well as from the essays of this volume themselves— which in some cases were originally written in languages other than English. The chapters contributed by Giancarlo Baffo, Riccardo Paparusso, Chiara Cantelli, and Alessio Scarlato were translated from the original Italian by Karen Turnbull, who also collaborated with Olga Selivanova on the translation of the Russian text contributed by Vladimir Glyantz, and with Natka Badurina on the translation from Croatian of the chapter written by Suzana Marianić. She also made a general revision of the English language within the book where it was needed. Andrea Oppo “I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.” (Revelation 3: 15-16) P reFaCe Slavic thought has embodied—as perhaps no other thought has—the myth of the “end of all things” as an actual event with a precise meaning in relation to the present. From the Christian icon to avant-garde painting, from the nineteenth-century novel to the poetry of the twentieth century, and not omitting theatre, cinema, or music, but above all within the entire domain of Slavic thought, there is a specific contemplation of the concepts of “end of present time” and “end of history” as conditions for a redemptive image of the world. It is not only St. John’s Apocalypse—with its roots deeply entrenched in the artistic sensitivity of the Slavic people—which is to be considered here, but also a more general idea which is widespread at all levels of Slavic culture: the apocalypse, as “filtered” through Slavic sensitivity, is largely a form of artistic imagery which suggests, at its very heart, that the highest hope necessarily passes through the annihilation, or transfiguration, of a kind of perspective on “earthly things.” To understand this idea means to understand an essential part of Slavic culture, which, however divergent and variegated it may be in general, converges on this specific myth in a surprising manner. The intent of this collective volume is to investigate the philosophical, literary, and aesthetic idea of apocalypse within some key examples in the arts and thought of the “Slavic world” during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The book, however, does not aim to demonstrate a univocal point of view about this topic—which would indeed be a hard task to undertake. The harking back to the apocalyptic myth, in Russian and Slavic authors, often turns out to be a private, almost idiosyncratic need. In this sense, the conclusions each author has in mind may well be very different, if not antithetical, to those of other authors. This book demonstrates, in fact, the extent of variation between the different shapes in which apocalypse has worked in Slavic culture: as an idea, as a narrative text, as an artistic experience. Nonetheless, the reader will easily acknowledge a common, underlying apocalyptic sensitivity, as it were, “applied” to any of these