„Anwärter auf die Hölle“: Stepan Trofimowitsch und die Menippea der Pharisäer
Bakhtin asserted that Dostoevsky’s most direct link to varieties of ancient Menippea was Christian literature, such as the Gospels or the Apocalypse. However, Bakhtin does not elaborate upon the Menippean aspects of these works which could have served as templates for Dostoevsky’s own. Whereas Bakht...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | deu |
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Oficyna Wydawnicza ATUT
2025-02-01
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| Series: | Linguistische Treffen in Wrocław |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://linguistische-treffen.pl/articles/26/06_levai.pdf |
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| Summary: | Bakhtin asserted that Dostoevsky’s most direct link to varieties of ancient Menippea was Christian literature, such as the Gospels or the Apocalypse. However, Bakhtin does not elaborate upon the Menippean aspects of these works which could have served as templates for Dostoevsky’s own. Whereas Bakhtin believed that, “The Menippean forms are based on man’s inability to know and contain his fate,” the case of the Pharisees in the Gospels was a bit more complex. The serio-comedy of the Pharisees was created by the ability of the God-man to know and contain their fate. In the end, what Bakhtin termed the “reduced laughter” of Stepan Trofimovich’s case comes from the same source. This paper examines Stepan Trofimovich as the embodiment of the Menippean elements of Jesus’ interactions with the Pharisees in the Gospels, focusing specifically on the journey of Stepan Trofimovich’s idea as it is introduced in “Instead of an Introduction” to its ultimate defeat in his “last peregrination.” Five specific aspects of the Menippea as defined by Bakhtin are employed in the analysis: 1) the absence of epic or tragic distance, with the subject presented on the plane of the present day, 2) the bold and unrestrained use of the fantastic and adventure devoted to a purely ideational and philosophical end, 3) insanity of all sorts, 4) no abstractly philosophical or religiously dogmatic resolution to ultimate questions, rather their embodiment in carnivalistic acts and images, and 5) the creation of an extraordinary plot situation or a provocative anacrisis. |
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| ISSN: | 2084-3062 2657-5647 |