Diabolus ex machina : Bulgakov's modernist devil
- In 1937, when Bulgakov was working on Master i Margarita and suffering from rejection by the theatre community, an old friend appealed to him: "Вы ведь государство в государстве. Сколько это может продолжаться? Надо сдаваться, все сдались. Один вы остались. Это глупо." And indeed "государство в государстве" ("a state within a state") is an appropriate way of describing a man who was feverishly working on a modernist novel at the height of socialist realism. The very fact that Master i Margarita was written in the oppressive environment of the 1930s makes it a unique modernist work, for it emerges as a protest against socialist realism and a defense of artistic freedom. In this respect the modernist qualities of Bulgakov's novel acquire a new dimension because Master i Margarita becomes a kind of artistic devil, fulfilling the traditional diabolic role of opposing authority. This is why Woland, as a character, is the metonymic expression of the novel's revolt.
Author: | Vladimir Tumanov |
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URN: | urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-363882 |
DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1080/00806768908600949 |
ISSN: | 0080-6765 |
Parent Title (German): | Scando-Slavica |
Publisher: | Munksgaard |
Place of publication: | Copenhagen |
Document Type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Date of Publication (online): | 2014/12/30 |
Year of first Publication: | 1989 |
Publishing Institution: | Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg |
Release Date: | 2014/12/30 |
GND Keyword: | Bulgakov, Michail / Master i Margarita; Modernismus |
Volume: | 35 |
Page Number: | 17 |
First Page: | 49 |
Last Page: | 61 |
HeBIS-PPN: | 367459361 |
Dewey Decimal Classification: | 8 Literatur / 89 Andere Literaturen / 891 Ostindoeuropäische, keltische Literaturen |
Sammlungen: | CompaRe | Allgemeine und Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft |
BDSL-Klassifikation: | 03.00.00 Literaturwissenschaft / BDSL-Klassifikation: 03.00.00 Literaturwissenschaft > 03.07.00 Ästhetik |
Licence (German): | Deutsches Urheberrecht |