Oldal 270 [270]
GYÖRGY ZOLTÁN Józsa
The Pythagoreans ought to be considered a further development in Bryusov’s
project to write the play entitled The Fall of Atlantis, which remained
unfinished. The main conflict, which lies in the protagonist’s dilemma over
the correct reading of the text, foreshadows an early Russian version of the
contemporary branch of science known as Rezeptionsdsthetik. The hero’s
death is looked upon as the loss of the interpreter, and here Bryusov touches
upon the question of the recipient as co-author. It is well-known that Russian
Symbolists viewed the process of reception as a creative act on the part of
the reader. The exclusivity of initiation is proclaimed by Prognost and Gorgij,
adherents of the esoteric status of knowledge and brethren of Sinaret, the
tragic hero. For them, the ritual is supposed to be an indispensable prerequisite
to obtaining the right to interpret a text.
The narrative elements of the dramatic etude thematize a problem of
hermeneutics ina way that makes this problem perceivable for common readers.
Nonetheless, it becomes complicated, given the problem of proclaiming
culture as memory, and a reference is made to the Platonic idea of the optimal
creative literary process, which is governed by the perfect functioning of
memory. This very idea, which provokes controversial associations with Vj.
Ivanov’s orthodox theory of the poet as “an organ of the people’s memory,”
comes to the fore due to the specific activity of the protagonist: he is trying to
decrypt a text written by the dwellers of Atlantis. The code for deciphering it,
thus, has vanished. Consequently, the presence of this hermeneutic principle
momentarily elevates the play into a symbolic space. Utterances on the lips
of the dramatic characters are thus to be distinguished on the level of their
esoteric and anagogic meanings. In spite of archetypal schemes exploited in
the dramatic situation, the potential connotative meanings are perceived by
means of surveying the religious philosophical context of the play. It is no
accident that the problem of this or that reading of a text or oral utterance
is pre-coded by the “profession” of the hero, who considers himself capable
of finding the code to the heritage of Atlantis. The dramatic hero is cast
simultaneously in the role of the mirror image of the recipient, i.e. reader
or viewer, who, in the same fashion, is involved in a situation of decoding,
which is realized in the process of perceiving the play. The hero’s death with
which the dramatic etude comes to a conclusion, however, comes as a turning
point, which is associated with contemporary echoes of the dying of the spirit
of the Silver Age of Russian Culture. The motif of death thus acquires the
meaning of the death of the learned, erudite, intelligent reader. Finding the
adequate code is turned into a task and privilege which belongs to the leaders of
the Pythagorean brotherhood, that is, those in possession of power within its
hierarchy. Here, we have the idea that power will predetermine the landmarks
of values which can serve as a basis for the process of interpretation.
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Daréczi-Sepsi-Vassänyi_Initiation_155x240.indb 268 6 2020.06.15. 11:04:23