HUMANITARIAN RESEARCHES

Journal of fundamental and applied researches

Artistic implementation of the concept of death: from cult to suggestion (literary gothics vs. impressionism)

2022. №1, pp. 152-157

Abyzov Alexey A. - Candidate of Philological Sciences, Associate Professor, Ivanovo State Polytechnic University, axxel68@mail.ru

Barysheva Tatyana G. - Candidate of Philological Sciences, Associate Professor, Ivanovo State Medical Academy, tanja-bur@mail.ru

A retrospection of the thanatos theme from antiquity to literary naturalism is presented. Particular attention is paid to the Gothic apotheosis of the concept of death in the works of pre-Romantic authors. Aesthetization of death during the 18th century in the verses of English "Graveyard Poets" gave the latter an aura of mystery, incomprehensibility, and also mystified the very concept of “death”. All this contributed to a radical transformation of aesthetic tastes at the close of the Age of Enlightenment. However, at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the interpretation of the traditional Gothic concept of death radically changed in the worldview of men of letters, being primarily thought as the problem of the individual's attitude to life. The short story by the Austrian writer A. Schnitzler "To Die" most fully reflected the impressionistic perception of thanatos with a shift in emphasis from the end point to the process of dying itself: from the gradual dying of the protagonist to gradual fading away of his love as a feeling, the supernatural being narrowed down to the framework of the characters' inner self with the dominance of emotional component in the latter. The naturalistic line can be traced in the fixation by the heroine of the physical destruction of the protagonist's appearance.

Key words: gothics, impressionism, death, suggestion, discourse, psychologism, transformation, retrospection

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