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INITIATION DRAMA IN RUSSIAN SYMBOLISM ee GYÖRGY ZOLTÁN JÓZSA ABSTRACT The paper aims to reveal the origins of various codes embedded in Alexander Blok’s The Rose and the Cross and Valery Bryusov’s The Pythagoreans. As has long been established, Russian Modernism is profoundly saturated by the Gnostic teachings of Sophia, which are partially transmitted by the mystic religious philosophy of V1. Solovyov. The act of initiation, the main medium of which was the genre of drama, is the focus of theoretical writings on the subject of the moods which renewed Russian drama. Nevertheless, this process is not purely artistic. Inthe early 20" century, Russian literature began to seeka model of creation in which the poet creating his or her own microcosm is identified as the Demiurge. This model thus faces the conflict between philosophy and ancient patterns of religious conscience. This tendency, which came to the surface in the era of Symbolism, leads to hidden meanings made overt by a set of unambiguous patterns, which deliberately create an atmosphere of mystery. Experimentation in Russian Symbolist drama limited itself to conceptions of the wholeness of structure, style, personae, and action, which offers a way to individual Gnosis. The reader or audience is supposed to decipher the secret code. Analysis of the two types of initiation hidden in Blok’s and Bryusov’s respective texts not only reveals a tendency to reconstruct ancient functions of literature, but also suggests a reconsideration of the notion of the reader’s perception. Initiation as a path to knowing higher realms was a key focus of the Russian Symbolists, ardent adherents as they were of the theurgical model of art, i.e. creation contingent on the participation of heavenly forces. Surprisingly, Daréczi-Sepsi-Vassänyi_Initiation_155x240.indb 259 6 2020.06.15. 11:04:23
