The Concept of «Night» and Antinomies of Poetic Knowledge

Abstract

This article dwells upon Sergey Fudel’s (1900–1977) understanding of processes underlying the development of European and Russian literature in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries. A specific point of interest is the topic of poetic knowledge, in Fudel’s works closely associated with the concept of the «Night», a concept frequently used both by Romantic and Symbolist poets. For Fudel, poetic knowledge is also associated with the idea of true communion between people. In Fudel’s opinion, European and Russian culture demonstrates an antinomy: artists, being especially susceptible to the feeling that beauty and life itself are in some way «divine», try to reach the Absolute through art, thus relying on some kind of «natural» mysticism. These attempts inevitably fail because of the shocking confrontation with chaos, evil and death which prevail in the fallen world. The artist is thus trapped: he either has to accept that his initial hopes were a mistake or to abandon art and «nature» in favour of faith in God who is both transcendent and present in His Church. According to Fudel, poetic works representing these concepts are still of value to a Christian, because they arise from artistic premonitions of truths revealed in the Church. Art is, therefore, both necessary (as an expression of spiritual search) and «unreliable», because God’s beautiful creation often replaces, in an artist’s eyes, the Creator Himself.