Original scientific paper
Mythopoetic motifs in the novel Antichrist. Peter and Alexei by Dmitry Merezhkovsky
Neda Andrić
; Institut za strane jezike, Podgorica
Abstract
The novel Antichrist. Peter and Alexei is analyzed as an example of the author's method of creating the world through the conception of the main character. Merezhkovsky introduces several hiero-cosmic symbols at the aesthetic plane and thus paints a picture of founding (cosmisating) a new space, a new world and a new city – that of Saint Petersburg, in the binary opposition to the old world – Moscow. Through a complex mythopoeia of water, Merezhkovsky foregrounds the images which through aquatic symbolism put Saint Peteresburg and Kitezh, as well as Moscow and the Heavenly Jerusalem, in a binary opposition, corresponding to the antonymy perishable/imperishable in cosmogonical and ontological terms. The eschatological motifs which dominate the final scenes enhance the contrast between the sacred and the profane, between the world of noumena and phenomena. The article also points to the method of using the ancient Greek mythologems which Merezhkovsky varies and develops in the third part of the trilogy – Christ and Antichrist.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
168522
URI
Publication date:
20.9.2016.
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