Nataliya M. Khachatryan, DSc in Philology, Professor of the Department of World Literature and Culture, Brusov State University, Tumanyan Street, 42, 375002, Yerevan, Armenia.
The article aims at identifying the national specifics of the Gothic tradition in the literature of French Neo-romanticism. “The Gothic”, as a depiction of the mysterious, supernatural, as a description of the feeling of horror and fear, as a psychological analysis of the pathological manifestations of human nature, is found at different stages of the development of French literature, when a person, being defenseless in the face of political and social cataclysms, sought the cause of the tragedy of his destiny in fate, in “supernatural” circumstances. The interest in the mysterious and mystical, that emerged under such conditions, turned out to be in tune with the sentiments of the French Neo-romantics of the second half of the 19 th century. This era was marked in France, on the one hand, by political upheavals and national humiliation, on the other hand, by outstanding discoveries of scientists. However, scientific and technological progress did not live up to society’s hopes for the correction of morals, the establishment of a fair order and prosperity. Man was left to determine his own guidelines: on the one hand, the memory of the moral categories of Good and Justice, still associated with the idea of God, on the other hand, more real Evil, associated with the idea of the Devil. Developing and deepening the doubt about the goodness of God, that was specifical for romantics, the Neo-romantics assumed a significant role for the Devil both in the world order and in the soul of an individual. Recognition of the unity of God and the Devil allows Neo-romantics, in particular, representatives of the “frenetic” branch of French Neo-romanticism – Jules Barbey d’Aurevilly, Lautréamont, Villiers de l’Isle-Adam, to create images of characters whose inner world changes under the influence of the “horrors” of the outside world, depict an altered state of consciousness of their heroes, pathological manifestations of their feelings, heightened to the extreme, leading to crimes, dictated by the Devil in their soul. At the same time, the authors do not give moral assessments of the actions of their heroes, limiting themselves to stating them.
aesthetics of the Gothic; mystical and “horrible”; “frenetic Romanticism”; Neo-romanticism; Barbey d’Aurevilly; Lautréamont; Villiers de l’Isle-Adam.
02.02.2024
15.03.2024
Khachatryan, N.M. “Aesthetics of the Gothic in French Neoromantic Prose”. Literaturovedcheskii zhurnal, no. 3(65), 2024, pp. 111–122. (In Russ.)
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