Oldal 277 [277]
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE GENRE OF THE INITIATION NOVEL...
of life to cosmic dimensions. This is (...) a refutation of biography: all moments of
life will have their meaning not in an ancestral or national plane, but in a cosmic
one.*
Bakhtin’s differentiation between the “biographic context” and “cosmic
laws” and also his observations concerning the differences between Tolstoy’s
novels of “reaching manhood” and The Brothers Karamazov, which is
oriented around the genre of hagiography, may prompt us to interpret more
extensive literary traditions: in all types of the European novel of education,
the biographical context prevails, whereas the initiation novel will come into
being as an alternative and will ascend to the cosmic origins of existence.
Bakhtin’s reference to Dostoevsky’s essential role is convincing. One
recalls the scene from The Brothers Karamazov which, “like spots of life
out of darkness,” is forever remembered by Alyosha: “He remembered one
still summer evening, an open window, the slanting rays of the setting sun
(he recalled the slanting rays most vividly of all); in a corner of the room the
holy image, before it a lighted lamp, and on her knees before the image his
mother, sobbing hysterically with cries and shrieks (...) holding him out in
both arms to the image as though to put him under the Mothers protection."
This almost symbolically composed picture has visibly exposed the forces
which determine Alyosha’s path: motherly love, the protection of Our Lady
and the participation of the cosmos, which is modestly manifested through
“the slanting rays of the setting sun.”°
According to Bakhtin, “in Germany expressionists also try to build life,
exceeding the boundaries of biography. This trend is represented by Werfel
and Meyrink. But they were preceded by Andrey Bely, and, in addition, their
works are less significant in terms of artistry and, judging from their spirit,
they appear outdated.”’
But despite his eminent insights, Bakhtin did not have the opportunity to
follow up on how Russian literature brought forth ample works, which are in
some way related to the genre of “initiation,” He specified, however, Bely’s role
as the creator of this specific genre in European literature.
Judging from Bely’s articles and correspondence, he thoughtfully strove
to create a new genre of novel, supplying a theoretical and culturological
basis. This was in part inspired by the fact that Bely sensed the dangers of
“secret knowledge” being available for a morally unprepared society as early
Zapisi lektsij po istorii russkoj literatury, in Bakhtin, Sobranije Sochinenij, vol. 2., 333-334.
Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, trans. Constance Garnett, New York, The
Lowell Press, 1912, 17.
Compare the thought of St. Bernard of Clairvaux in his Sermo super Cantica canticorum, 31,
3 (J. Leclerq [ed.], Sancti Bernardi Opera, vol. 2, Roma, Editiones Cistercienses, 1958).
Bakhtin, Sobranije sochinenij, vol. 2, 334.
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