Father Gippius is from a Russianized (in Russia since the 16th century) German family. Wife D. S. Merezhkovsky (1865-1941), whom she met in 1888 and lived "52 years, not apart for a single day."
Gippius was a devoted spiritual companion Merezhkovsky, an accomplice and inspirer (in the opinion of many contemporaries, the initiator) of his religious and philosophical ideas; Merezhkovsky introduced it to the Petersburg literary environment. Her first shocking poems appeared in Severny Vestnik (1895), the organ of the “senior symbolists” (Gippius maintains relations with the leading critic of the magazine, A. L. Volynsky, which ended in a rupture) "Dedication" ("But I love myself as God") and "Song" ("I need something that is not in the world"); they, like other poems, Gippius included in her prose books. Widely published in periodicals, the poems were collected in collections published in Moscow: “Collection of Poems. 1889-1903 "(1904) and" Collected Poems. 1903-1909 "(1910).
Soul and God
"Poetry of limits", the highest ups and downs - the polar and constant range of her poetry. But this is not a lonely confession of a lonely soul, but its metaphysical landscape: all its states and insights are symbolic and realized by Gippius as stages of acquiring personality in the light of the highest truth, a personality that transcends itself, striving to go beyond human dimensions. Gippius mercilessly dissects his soul - sluggish and powerless, deathly and "inert", "numb" and indifferent; one has to fight and overcome with such a soul - by one's own will (“Thoughts without will is an unreigning path”), by “will” and by faith. Turning to God (under the names He, the Invisible, the Third) and calling the verses "prayers", Gippius establishes with him his own, direct and equal, "blasphemous" relationship. For her, God is, first of all, a path to self-disclosure and purification of her own self. At the same time, Gippius postulates not only love for God, but also for oneself, he calls self-love a sin, since the “immensity” of her self, striving for heaven, thirst for the unrealizable and impossible (especially in love, which she also understands metaphysically, as a rejection of the "earthly" attraction for the sake of spiritual unity in the union of two), expectation of a "miracle" - from God ( "Prayer"). Through her will, according to Gippius, the divine will is revealed, and God is called or must - imperative in general is characteristic of Gippius - to sanctify the courage and audacity of such a soul, its very rebelliousness - "But the weakness of humility I will not give up my soul" ( "Deafness"), strengthen her will and faith ( "Ballad", "About other"). Willful efforts to create and preserve the soul is a "difficult" path, from which "devilish" temptations and temptations, despair and impotence of faith are inseparable, and Gippius tells about them with fearless truthfulness. The truthfulness, sincerity, "uniqueness" of Gippius's poetry were also recognized by those who spoke about the speculativeness, "dryness", cold restraint of her poems (written from a male face). Gippius was appreciated as an outstanding master of verse ( V. Ya.Bryusov, I. F. Annensky). Virtuosity of form, rhythmic richness, “melodious abstraction” distinguished her lyrics of the late 1890s - 1900s, which were later more traditional.
First decadent prose
The first collections of stories by Gippius "New People" (1896, 1907) and "Mirrors" (1898) became the first "decadent" prose books of Russian Symbolism, revealing the structure of thought of "new people" - broken, morbid, disembodied. All of them were united by a conscious rejection of life, longing for "new beauty", "another sky", for everything and only "inexplicable", "forever inaccessible and forever incomprehensible" ("New People"). The prose debut of Gippius was completely different in manner and mood - the story "Unfortunate" (1892), with sympathetic attention depicting the "simple life" (the original author's title); pictures of everyday existence succeeded Gippius in other books. The duality of man and being itself, the "angelic" and demonic beginnings, the view of life as a reflection of an unattainable spirit (the eponymous story "Mirror") revealed the influence of F. M. Dostoevsky. The first books, like most of the subsequent ones, caused fierce rejection of liberal and populist criticism - for the unnaturalness, invisibility, and pretentiousness of the heroes of Gippius. In The Third Book of Stories (1902), the paradox of feelings and aspirations of the same "morbidly strange" characters are more artistically motivated, conveyed through the struggle of consciousness, their values \u200b\u200b(autobiographically close to Gippius herself) - through a painful search, often with a tragic outcome; contrary to generally accepted morality and truth. Gippius formulates his metaphysics of love (correlated with the "Meaning of Love" V.S.Solovyova) and suffering: to love not for oneself, not for happiness and “appropriation”, but for gaining in infinity or in the name of the third (which, from the point of view of Gippius, is essentially the same), in order to express “ give my whole soul "(the desire to go to the end in any experience, including in experimenting with oneself and people) - one of her imperatives and attitudes Gippius - a poem "To the dregs"... Such love presupposes a fearless determination to inflict suffering on another, and not to save one from it - if it contributes to the growth of the soul, self-manifestation of the personality ("Twilight of the Spirit", "Comet", the drama-mystery "Holy Blood"). In the story "Holy Flesh" - about the self-sacrifice of a simple heroine for the sake of a feeble-minded sister - the emphasis is on the freedom of humility, rather than passive submission to fate.
Anton Krainy
In 1899, Gippius approached the world of art, published literary-critical articles in their magazine (World of Art, 1899-1901), appeared as a publicist-critic and factual co-editor (together with Merezhkovsky, P. P. Pertsov; since 1904 with D.V. Filosofov) of the religious-philosophical journal Novy Put (1903-1904), where he also publishes his poems and prose (reports of the Religious and Philosophical Meetings also appear here), one of the leading critics of the Symbolist journal Libra (1906-08), later (1910-14) - a permanent contributor to the liberal "Russian thought"; participation in them reflects the stages of Gippius's spiritual quest.
Religious and philosophical meetings
Other prose
In the late 1900s and 1910s, Gippius published two collections of short stories, Black and White (1908), Moon Ants (1912), and novels-dilogies The Devil's Doll (1911) and Roman Tsarevich "(1913). The stories of this time are closer to life, are addressed to "sick" modern issues, the circle of heroes is expanding (students, people from the people, the middle class), religious problems do not go away, but they lose the imperative tone, the search for the "real I" is accompanied by dreary bewilderment, horror before immediate life and are often "resolved" by death. The novels were clearly ideological, tendentious and "careless" in execution; the gallery of social types derived in them (revolutionaries, provocateurs, carriers of the ideas of "tri-brotherhood" and vulgar Nietzscheans), a picture of ideological and social decay, an attempt at religious awareness of the revolution (in Roman Tsarevich) did not receive artistic generalization and unity.
Emigration
Gippius embraced the February revolution with enthusiasm, hoping for a religious, creative and political renewal of the country, participated in political life, as she told about in the Petersburg Diaries. 1914-1919 "(New York, 1982, 1990; both editions with a foreword by NN Berberova). For Gippius, the October Revolution was the death of Russia, its criminal "destruction", "murder of freedom" and a common sin, including the people, "who do not respect sacred things" (poem, "Candle of Hate"); in 1918-22, a cycle of extremely hostile anti-revolutionary, "revengeful" poems ("The Last Poems. 1914-1918") and piercing poems about Russia ( "If", "Know",).
At the end of 1919 Gippius with Merezhkovsky, Filosofov and their literary secretary and poet V.A.Zlobin illegally emigrate from Russia to Poland, and since November 1920, after parting with Filosofov, they live in Paris. Gippius publishes articles, reviews, poems (of which he writes less) in the magazine "Sovremennye zapiski", newspapers "Latest news", "Vozrozhdenie" and many other publications. Small collections of poetry are published (reprints of old and new poems): “Poems. A diary. 1911-1921 "(Berlin, 1922) and" Shining "(Paris, 1939) and memoirs" Living Faces "(Prague, 1925). In the chapter "The Fragrance of Gray Hair", Gippius draws attractive images of the "famous old men" who have left the stage, its literary antagonists - A. N. Plescheeva, Ya.P. Polonsky, N.I. Weinberg, D.V. Grigorovich, emphasizes their "moral purity", "ability to feat and sacrifice," the spirit of "chivalry" inherent in Russian literature and the "Russian intelligentsia." Creates bright and benevolently insightful (despite the fact that she does not smooth out contradictions and conflicts) portraits Blok, White, Bryusov, Rozanova, F. Sologuba and others, which, apparently, was facilitated by the absence of a burning literary struggle and polemical task.
Intransigence towards Bolshevik Russia complicates her relations with many Russian emigrants. But here, too, she organizes literary "Sundays", the society "Green Lamp" (1927-1939), whose visitors were G. V. Ivanov, B. K. Zaitsev, V.F.Khodasevich, M. A. Aldanov, A. M. Remizov, I. A. Bunin, literary youth. According to Berberova's recollections, at the Merezhkovskys' houses there were constant debates about what was “more dear to whom”: “freedom without Russia” or “Russia without freedom”; Gippius chose the first.
The last unfinished book of Gippius - "Dmitry Merezhkovsky" (Paris, 1951) - was written in 1941 after his death Merezhkovsky, which she experienced hard; a significant part of the book is devoted to his ideological evolution, the history of religious and philosophical meetings. Gippius was buried in Paris under one tombstone with Merezhkovsky at the Russian cemetery Saint-Genevieve de Bois.
L. M. Schemeleva
GIPPIUS, Zinaida Nikolaevna - Russian writer, critic. Wife D. S. Merezhkovsky, together with whom she was a representative of decadence in Russian literature, which became especially widespread during the years of reaction after the defeat of the revolution of 1905-07. In 1888 she published her first poems in the Severny Vestnik, around which the St. Petersburg Symbolists of the “older” generation were grouped. In 1903-04, together with Merezhkovsky and D. V. Filosofov published the literary magazine "New Way". In the verses of Gippius, the preaching of sensual love is combined with motives of religious humility, fear of death and decay. The main value for Gippius remains the Nietzschean understanding of his own personality ( "I love myself like a god"). Author of several collections of stories, novels: "Devil's Doll", (1911), "Roman Tsarevich" (1913) and others, plays: "Poppies Color" (1908, together with D. Merezhkovsky and D. Filosofov) and "The Green Ring" (1916), memoirs "Living Faces" (1925). As a critic (pseudonym Anton Krainy), Gippius defended symbolism (Literary Diary, 1908). Gippius met the October Revolution with extreme hostility; in emigration (since 1920) she appeared in articles and poems with sharp attacks on the Soviet system.
Cit .: Sobr. poetry, book 1-2, M., 1904-1910; Poems (Diary 1911-1921), Berlin, 1922; Last verses. 1914-1918, P., 1918; Shining, Paris, 1938; Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Paris, 1951.
Lit .: Lundberg E., Poetry Z. Gippius, “Rus. Thought, 1912, No. 12; Bryusov, Z.N. Gippius, in the book: Rus. literature of the XX century Ed. S. A. Vengerova, V. 1M., ; Chukovsky K., Z.N. Gippius, in his book: Faces and Masks, P., 1914, p. 165-77; Gorbov D., In our country and abroad. Lit. essays, [M.], 1928; Mikhailovsky B.V., Rus. literature of the XX century., M., 1939; History of Rus. literature of the late XIX - early XX century. Bibliographic index ed. K. D. Muratova, M. - L., 1963.
O. N. Mikhailov
Brief literary encyclopedia: In 9 volumes - T. 2. - M .: Soviet encyclopedia, 1964
GIPPIUS (Merezhkovskaya) Zinaida Nikolaevna - poetess, fiction writer, playwright and literary critic (pseudonym - Anton Krainy). She began to publish in 1888 in the Severny Vestnik. Together with D. Merezhkovsky, V. Bryusov and others, Gippius was one of the founders of symbolism. As a public figure, Gippius is known for her active participation in religious and philosophical societies. She was one of the editors of the New Way magazine. She also owns a number of articles in the "World of Art". The symbolism of Gippius is the symbolism of that part of the noble intelligentsia that did not accept the social relations of the era of industrial capitalism and the first revolutionary storms. In most of his stories and novellas, Gippius gives the image of a person losing ground, deprived of any meaning of existence. Very indicative in this regard are the book of stories "New People" and the collection "Heavenly Words", composed of old things by Gippius (published in Paris in 1921). In withdrawal, in individualism, in extreme self-forgetfulness, the heroes of Gippius see the only way out for themselves. Sometimes these experiences reach the point of complete atrophy of all social instincts: “People, listen to me, you will not be happy anyway. Make it so that you don't want anything and be afraid of nothing - that you will begin to live in peace ”(the story“ Legend ”). Gippius especially closely develops the motives of death and destruction, thereby joining the group of the most decadent Symbolists. Her poetry is all permeated with the consciousness of inner emptiness, lack of will and loneliness:
“I am standing over the abyss, under the heavens - But I cannot fly away to the azure. I do not know whether to rebel or submit, There is no courage to die or live. God is close to me, but I cannot pray, I want love, but I cannot love ... ".
Gippius reacted negatively to the war, but her whole protest is thoroughly religious and pacific ("Father! Father! Bow down to your land - it is saturated with filial blood").
Gippius perceived the October Revolution as "fornication", "disrespect for holy things", "robbery". Gippius's poems of the period 1917-1921, directed to the Bolsheviks, are clearly of a Black Hundred character:
“Slaves, liars, murderers, whether tati - I hate every sin. But you, Judas, you traitors, I hate more than anyone. "
The high quality of her poetic language is now sharply declining. Gippius's poems abound in a number of crude proseisms. In 1920, Gippius emigrated to Western Europe. In Munich she released together with D. Merezhkovsky, D. Filosofov et al. Collection of memoirs about Soviet Russia. In 1925, two volumes of sharply tendentious memoirs about Bryusov, Block, Sologube and others (under the title "Living Faces"). Joined the CPSU (b) V. Bryusov, in her opinion, "looks like a chimpanzee"; but “Anya” (Vyrubova) is described by her enthusiastically and pathetically. Foreign "creativity" Gippius is devoid of any artistic and social value, except for the fact that it clearly characterizes the "animal face" of emigrants.
Bibliography: I. Stories - vol. I ("New people"), St. Petersburg., 1896 (the same, published by M. Pirozhkova, St. Petersburg., 1907); t. II ("Mirrors"), St. Petersburg, 1898; vol. III (Stories), St. Petersburg, 1902; v. IV ("The Scarlet Sword"), St. Petersburg, 1906; t. V ("Black on white"), St. Petersburg, 1908; t. VI ("Moon Ants"), M., 1912; Devil's doll, M., 1911; Roman Tsarevich, M., 1913; Green ring, P., 1916; Last poems, P., 1918; Poems (Diary 1911-1921), Berlin, 1922.
II. Kamenev Yu., On the timid flame of Mr. Antonov Krainykh, "Literary decay", book. 2nd, 1908; Lundberg Evg., Z. Gippius, 1911; Shaginyan M., On the bliss of the one who has (poetry of Gippius), M., 1912; Gippius Z., Autobiographical note, "Russian literature of the XX century.", Ed. S. A. Vengerova, vol. I; Bryusov V., Z.N. Gippius, ibid., Vol. I.
III. Fomin A. G., Bibliography of the latest Russian literature, "Russian literature of the XX century.", Vol. II, book. 5th; Vladislavlev I.V., Russian Writers, ed. 4th, Guise, L., 1924; His, Literature of the great decade, vol. I, Giz, M., 1928; Mandelstam R.S., Fiction in the assessment of Russian Marxist criticism, ed. 4th, Giz, M., 1928.
An. T.
Literary encyclopedia: In 11 volumes - [M.], 1929-1939
Zinaida Gippius left behind a great legacy that will be passed on for many generations. She was not only a poetess, but also wrote novels, stories, short stories and the press. Her works are always a wise and purposeful story that conveys the experiences of people.
One of her most beautiful and at the same time gloomy poems is considered to be the work "Spiders". From the very first lines, a heavy and gloomy mood is approaching the reader, which does not let him go until the very end.
"I am in a cramped cell - in this world."
Perhaps Gippius, with the help of a literary hero, described her thoughts and feelings. From these we can only establish that the author felt trapped from where there was no way out. In addition to being cramped and lacking freedom, the author also feels lonely. The place where the literary hero of the poem resides is not only gloomy and cramped, but also very lonely. After all, there is nothing there, only one person trapped.
But the most important element of this dungeon is the spiders that keep the prisoner inside. The author describes them as fat, dexterous and dirty animals, whose monotonous work makes her afraid
Much more.
The location of the spiders is also important. They are all located in the corners of the room, four corners - four spiders. This means that they surrounded their prisoner with their omnipresent presence, they only increase fear more.
At the beginning of the poem it seems that the literary hero only stands and watches from the sidelines. Yes, she is scared to madness, but we do not see the very contact with spiders. And only the line: "My eyes are under the web" says that she has already fallen into this trap and there is no way to get out of it. And the spiders, with which she personifies her enemies and adversaries, are glad that she fell into the trap.
The poem is very beautiful and mystical, it describes the fear of imprisonment, hopelessness and lack of dreams.
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Analyzing many of the poems by Z.doc
- 37.00 KbAnalyzing many of the poems of Z. Gippius, it is impossible not to pay attention to their special spatial structure.
the characteristic of the main significant locus in the collections “Collected Poems. 1889-1903 "and" Collected Poems. 1903-1909 ", which is a kind of enclosed space, similar to a cell. The "private" space gets its completeness and is modeled through a system of images of silence and prayer, as well as images of a lamp and a candle, a window, a threshold. This space replaces "home", provides isolation, peace.
I am in a cramped cell - in this world.
And the cell is cramped and low.
And in four corners - four
Tireless spider ... ("Spiders")
The poem seems to be inspired by the conversation between Svidrigailov and Raskolnikov about the afterlife: “Everything seems to us eternity as an idea that cannot be understood, something huge, huge! Why is it necessarily huge? And suddenly, instead of all this, imagine, there will be one room there, sort of like a village bath, smoky, and spiders in all corners, and that's all eternity. "
The symbolism of the "spider" characteristic of the consciousness of the early XX century. directly recorded in the diaries of V. Bryusov: "Merezhkovsky defended the opinion that the torments of hell will be bodily, there will be cauldrons with boiling resin and rooms with spiders" (Bryusov V. Diaries. - L., 1979. - p. 127).
The image of a closed space - a cramped cell, in which spiders are hidden, symbolizing evil, is inspired, according to Hansen-Leve, "by the grotesque images of Dostoevsky's hell (eternity)" [Hanzen-Leve, 1999, p. 107]. The spider sitting in its web is the center of the world; this is how an analogy with the picture of the universe arises, and therefore this mythologeme can be viewed in the paradigm of the eternal weaving of a web of illusions1. The association with the picture of the universe is indicated by the numerical symbolism of the four spiders. The "four spiders", with their continuous webbing and killing ability, retain the meaning of "the continuous alternation of forces on which the stability of the world depends."
[Curlott, 1994. S. 383]. The symbolism of the number "four" becomes "a sign of the unity of the lower and higher spheres of being" [Tresidder, 2001, p. 170]. Man in this context is only a microcosm, a reflection of the vast Universe that is contained in each individual.
The spider symbolism carries the meaning of the continuous transmutation of a person turned into a victim1. The spider in the poetry of Gippius, being a lunar chthonic animal, retaining power over the world of phenomena, spins the thread of human destiny2. The web, as a variant of the fabric, carries the idea of \u200b\u200bcreation and development (the wheel and its center). The number "four" ("... They are four cobwebs / In one, huge, weaved. / I look - their backs are moving / In the fetid-gloomy dust ...") [Gippius, 2001, vol. 2. P. 513] , being a symbol of earthly space, external, natural limits of "minimal awareness of totality", ultimately personifies the rationality of the world, so alien, hated by the lyrical subject of poetry 3. Gippius [Tresidder, 2001. P.332].
The originality of the artistic solution of time and space in the poetry of Z. Gippius 1889-1909 is connected with the solitude of the lyric hero: the reality surrounding him is not material, but spiritual. It is determined that the space of the lyrical hero Gippius is multidimensional, his images are included in the paradigm of internal-external, friend-alien, closed-open, temporary and eternal. The "cell" space of the lyric hero is adjacent to other worlds - the valley and the mountain, and it is possible to enter any of these worlds by crossing the "border" ("windows", "threshold", "doors"). The exit to the outer space does not please and does not free the hero: in his relations with the natural elements (water, earth, air and fire) there is a stable statics, the symbolism of death dominates: the pond is "motionless", the fire is "fireless", the air is "cloudy fog" , the earth is an "open grave."
The "private" space of the lyric hero is anthropocentric, on the external level it is static, on the internal level it is dynamic. A model of “space of the soul” is being formed, appearing in a “naked” form and striving for the transition to eternity: “With the last nakedness of the naked / My soul - there are no more limits” (“The Wedding Ring”, 1905). The human soul in the representation of the lyrical hero Gippius has a symbolic spatial expression, appears in the image of a temple.
We think we will build a new temple
For the new, promised to us, land ...
But everyone cherishes their peace
And loneliness in your crack
The hero's soul is, as it were, in "triple imprisonment", exists on several levels simultaneously. So, the deepest level of "confinement" is the "soul of the soul" ("Creature", 1907), the second level is the soul in the fetters of a "strange, dull-evil, blind-born" body ("Third Hour", 1906) who does not want to have any "insights". And the third level is a voluntary "confinement" of one's soul in a "cell space" that embraces the whole world: "I am in a cramped cell - in this world" ("Spiders" 1903). Such a "confinement" of the soul can have an infinite number of levels, the last of which will be eternity. The lyrical hero-contemplator with his gaze matches the distant and close plans and thus informs the development of the action. Spatial reversal is combined with tightness to the center (“the space of the soul”), which determines the direction of movement inward: “I am for the monastery life / I have a secret predilection / Is there a stormy boat here / Is there a tranquil happiness awaiting?” ("Isn't it here?", 1904).
The artistic space of Gippius' lyrics is characterized by static, which is one of the main means of affirming the supratemporal nature of the depicted. External movement has no meaning without internal transformation, internal metamorphosis. What matters is not movement in space, but the readiness of the soul itself to alternate death and rebirth, its ability to "die and rise again." The fullness of the existence of the lyric hero Z. Gippius is achieved in the texts due to the presence of a two-way connection "man - world".
The lamp in a cramped cell calls me
Variety of the last silence
Blissful silence, fun -
And the gentle attention of Satan.
He serves: then he lights the lamp,
Then he will straighten my cassock on my chest,
It raises the rosary that was sleeping for me
And whispers: “Be with Us, don't go!
Don't you like loneliness?
Solitude is a great temple.
With people ... you can't save them, you ruin yourself,
And here, alone, you will be equal to Us.
The subject in Gippius not only perceives the world, but also feels the view from the side of the world on himself, that is, he is in the function of the object. A reverse perspective arises: nature “looks” at a person: “Swaddling, lying down, submissive, / I've been lying for a long time; / A month, black-black, / Looks at me through the window "(" Black sickle ", 1908). Internal reversibility can be traced at the compositional, verbal level, goes beyond the text, making ambivalence the dominant factor in texts at the conceptual level. The lyrical hero Gippius is in the field of complex relationships, as if inside polar substances with the play of opposite meanings characteristic of the world of transitional states.
Short description
The spider symbolism carries the meaning of the continuous transmutation of a person turned into a victim1. The spider in the poetry Gippius, being a lunar chthonic animal, retaining power over the world of phenomena, spins the thread of human destiny2. The web, as a variant of the fabric, carries the idea of \u200b\u200bcreation and development (the wheel and its center). The number "four" ("... They are four cobwebs / In one, huge, weaved. / I look - their backs move / In the fetid-gloomy dust ...") [Gippius, 2001, vol. 2. P. 513] , being a symbol of earthly space, external, natural limits of "minimal awareness of totality", ultimately, personifies the rationality of the world, so alien, hated by the lyrical subject of poetry 3. Gippius [Tresidder, 2001. P.332].