The Book of Ecclesiastes as «axial» archetext of the baroque poetry

Authors

  • Galina V. Sinilo Belarusian State University, 4 Niezaliežnasci Avenue, Minsk 220030, Belarus

Keywords:

The Bible, The Book of Ecclesiastes, «axis» archetext, intertext, paratext, archetext, metatext, XVII century period, European Baroque poetry, German Baroque poetry, religious and philosophical lyrical poetry, Vanitas-Gedicht genre

Abstract

The paper examines the role of the biblical Book of Ecclesiastes as one of the «axial» archetexts of the Baroque period and the most important meaning-generating text of the European Baroque poetry. It is shown how the key ideas, paradoxes and antinomies of existence and consciousness determine religious and philosophical discourse and literary world of Ecclesiastes; and how they affect the aesthetics and the poetics of the Baroque. It reveals in the basic philosophical principles and topics of the Baroque (vanitas mundi, discordia concors, Constantia) and in the paradoxical combination of tragic nature of life and glorification of its joy, pessimism and hedonism, skepticism and deep faith in persistence of human spirit finding support in God at the same time. Religious and philosophical poetry of the Baroque is associated with sustainable inter-, para- and architxtual connections and simultaneously it acts like a kind of detailed side note commentary of the biblical book, like metatext in relation to it. The constant dialogue with Ecclesiastes is typical for all European literatures of the XVII century but it is especially intensively developed in German poetry, due to the tragic German reality of the Early Modern Age.

Author Biography

  • Galina V. Sinilo, Belarusian State University, 4 Niezaliežnasci Avenue, Minsk 220030, Belarus

    PhD (philology), docent; professor at the department of cultural studies, faculty of social and cultural communications, associate professor at the department of foreign literature, faculty of philology

References

  1. Genette G. Palimpsestes: la littérature au second degré. Paris : Éditions du Seuil, 1982 (in Fr.).
  2. Sinilo G. V. The Bible as the «axial» archetext of European literature (by the example of German lyric poetry). J. Belarus. State Univ. Philol. 2017. No. 3. P. 19–29 (in Russ.).
  3. Sinilo G. V. Ekklesiast i ego retseptsiya v mirovoi kul’ture [Ecclesiastes and Its Reception in World Culture] : in 2 parts. Minsk : Belarus. State Univ., 2012. Part 1 : [Precursors, Poetics, Religious Interpretations] (in Russ.).
  4. Buber M. Ich und Du. Frankfurt a. M. : Reclam Philipp jun., 1995 (in Ger.).
  5. Bakhtin M. M. Estetika slovesnogo tvorchestva [The Aesthetics of Verbal Art]. Moscow : Iskusstvo, 1979 (in Russ.).
  6. Bibler V. Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin, ili Poetika i kul’tura [Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin or the poetics of culture]. Moscow : Progress, 1991 (in Russ.).
  7. Sinilo G. V. The evolution of approaches to the analysis of the Biblical text in the context of the development of Bible and literature studies. Vestnik Polotskogo gos. univ. Ser. A: Gumanit. Nauki [Bull. Polotsk State Univ. Ser. A: Human. Sci.]. 2017. No. 10. P. 34–46 (in Russ.).
  8. Lotman Y. Analiz poeticheskogo teksta: struktura stikha [Analysis of the poetic text]. Leningrad : Prosveshchenie, 1972 (in Russ.).
  9. Averintsev S. S. [The harp of King David: at the origin of the oldest lyrical tradition. (Introduction)]. Inostr. lit. [Foreign literature]. 1988. No. 6. P. 189–191 (in Russ.).
  10. Ketuvim. Jerusalem : Mosad ha-rav Kuk, 1978 (in Hebr. and Russ.).
  11. Diakonov I. M., Kogan L. E. , Manevitsh L. V. (transl.) Vetkhii Zavet: Plach Ieremii; Ekklesiast; Pesn’ Pesnei [The Old Testament: Lamentations of Jeremiah; Ecclesiastes; Song of Songs]. Moscow : Russ. State Hum. Univ., 1998 (in Russ.).
  12. Diakonoff I. M. [The Book of Ecclesiastes: Commentary]. Poeziya i proza Drevnego Vostoka [Poetry and prose of ancient orient]. Moscow, 1973. P. 724–727 (in Russ.).
  13. Goncharenko S. F. (ed.). Ispanskaya poeziya v russkikh perevodakh [Spanish poetry in Russian translation]. 2nd ed. Moscow : Raduga, 1984 (in Russ.).
  14. Stolbov V. (ed.). Poeziya ispanskogo Vozrozhdeniya [Poetry of Spanish Renaissance]. Moscow : Khudozh. lit., 1990 (in Russ.).
  15. Bochkareva I. (ed.). [European poetry of XVII Century]. Moscow : Hudozh. lit., 1977.
  16. Simeon Polotskii. Virshi. [Poems]. Minsk : Mastackaja litaratura, 1990 (in Russ.).
  17. Sinilo G. V. The dialogue with Ecclesiastes in the poetry of Simeon Polotsky. Vestnik Polotskogo gos. univ. Ser. A: Gumanit.
  18. Nauki [Bull. Polotsk State Univ. Ser. A: Human. Sci.]. 2015. No. 10. P. 16 –25 (in Russ.).
  19. Maché U., Meid V. (hrgst.). Gedichte des Barock. Stuttgart : Philipp Reclam jun., 2005 (in Ger.).
  20. Shlapoberskaya S. [Germany: commentaries]. In: Evropeiskaya poeziya XVII veka [European Poetry of XVII Century]. Moscow, 1977. P. 797–798 (in Russ.).

Downloads

Published

2019-03-01

Issue

No. 2 (2018): Journal of the Belarusian State University. Philology

Section

Literary Research

License

The authors who are published in this journal agree to the following:

  1. The authors retain copyright on the work and provide the journal with the right of first publication of the work on condition of license Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial. 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
  2. The authors retain the right to enter into certain contractual agreements relating to the non-exclusive distribution of the published version of the work (e.g. post it on the institutional repository, publication in the book), with the reference to its original publication in this journal.
  3. The authors have the right to post their work on the Internet (e.g. on the institutional store or personal website) prior to and during the review process, conducted by the journal, as this may lead to a productive discussion and a large number of references to this work. (See The Effect of Open Access.)

How to Cite

[1]
Sinilo, G.V. 2019. The Book of Ecclesiastes as «axial» archetext of the baroque poetry. Journal of the Belarusian State University. Philology. 2 (Mar. 2019), 5–16.