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Semantic Sfumato: Transformation of an Ancient Source in “Julian the Apostateˮ by D. S. Merezhkovsky
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Semantic Sfumato: Transformation of an Ancient Source in “Julian the Apostateˮ by D. S. Merezhkovsky
Annotation
PII
S160578800019457-8-
Publication type
Article
Status
Published
Authors
Vadim Polonskiy 
Occupation: Director
Affiliation: A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the RAS
Address: Russian Federation, Moscow
Edition
Volume 81 Issue 2
Pages
22-26
Abstract

In despite of the prevailing conclusions, Dmitry Merezhkovsky as a novelist works quite scrupulously with historical sources. However, he subjects them to a significant semantic transformation. In this sense, the case with the novel “The Death of the Gods. Julian the Apostate&8j1; (1895) is especially representative. Here the material of the main source, “Roman History&8j1; (Res gestae) by Ammianus Marcellinus, is systematically fictionalized according to the laws of Modernist mythopoetics. Merezhkovsky can reduce a hero of the Latin work to one symbolic peculiar feature, or, on the contrary, decompose a character’s trait sparingly indicated by Ammianus into a complex series of figurative-motif derivatives. The author, mastering the registers of Modernist writing, resorts to the semantic transformation of the ancient source according to the type of “sfumato” technique by Leonardo da Vinci. As a result of the narrative correction of the quotation layer, the protagonist of the Symbolist novel appears not as a Stoic hero, the bearer of the Roman ethos, but as a passively aesthetic “martyr of the new religious consciousness” à la fin de siècle.

Keywords
Merezhkovsky, Ammianus Marcellinus, Julian the Apostate, citation, literary source, historical novel
Received
12.01.2022
Date of publication
25.04.2022
Number of purchasers
12
Views
669
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0.0 (0 votes)
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S160578800019457-8-1 Дата внесения правок в статью - 30.03.2022
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References

1. Francuzskij tekst avtobiograficheskoj zametki D.S. Merezhkovskogo, otpravlennoj v Parizh Z. Vasiljevoj i M.E. Prozoru (publikaciya V.V. Polonskogo) [The French Text of the Autobiographical Note by D.S. Merezhkovsky, sent to Paris to Z. Vasilyeva and M.E. Prozor (V.V. Polonsky’s Publication)]. Francuzskie i frankoyazychnye rukopisi v Rossii (XVIII – nachalo XX v.) [French and French-Language Manuscripts in Russia (18th – early 20th Century)]. Moscow, IMLI RAN Publ., 2019, pp. 442–444. (In French, In Russ.)

2. Mann, Th. Briefe. 1889–1936. Frankfurt-am-Main: Fischer, 1961. (In German)

3. Vengerov, S. Merezhkovsky D.S. Enciklopedicheskij slovar F.A. Brokgauza i I.A. Efrona. Dopoln. tom II [Encyclopedic Dictionary of F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron. Supplementary Volume II]. St. Petersburg, F.A. Brokgauz i I.A. Efron Publ., 1906. (In Russ.)

4. Ponomareva, G.M. “V Evropu prorubit okno...ˮ [“To Cut a Window to Europe...ˮ]. Russkaya rech [Russian Speech]. 1991. № 4.

5. Ammianus Marcellinus. Rimskaya istoriya. Per. s lat. Yu.A. Kulakovskogo i A.I. Sonni [Roman History. Translated from Latin by Yu.A. Kulakovsky and A.I. Sonny]. Moscow, AST, Ladomir Publ., 2005. (In Russ.)

6. Merezhkovsky, D.S. Sobr. soch. v 4-m tt. T.1. [Collected Works in 4 Vols. Vol. 1]. Moscow, Pravda Publ., 1990. (In Russ.)

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