Semantic inversion of biblical mythologemes in Leonid Andreev’s novel “The Diary of Satan”

Abstract

For the first time, the novel “The Diary of Satan” by L. Andreev has been considered in the context of biblical mythology. The focus of our scientific research is the process of semantic re-construction of biblical mythologemes, with the preservation of their symbolic nature, aimed at recreating a true reality, characterized by a world outlook without Christ. Andreev appears as a thinker who represents his concepts of man and Satan’s nature. In the work, the paradigmatic exchange with biblical symbolic images and motifs demonstrates the author’s pessimism and is of an accusatory nature. The article defines the functions of mythologemes, analyzes the images in the system of relations “Vandergud (Satan) - Mary – Magnus” and shows the result of the transformation of the biblical concept of the Word. Satan, whose destiny is to tempt people, to disunite them and to be the bearer of evil, is himself exposed to temptation in the status of “incarnate”. Thomas Magnus, under the guise of lies, displays base diversity. Both Magnus and the cardinal appear before the reader as “satanned”. In the image of the “beautiful” Mary, a “terrible” emptiness is hidden. The biblical meaning of the Word in the novel is devalued, for it performs the function of a “service”, hiding the “lie of the game”, reflecting the state of affairs in the world in which the truth has been distorted. The Word-Truth is transformed into the Word-Lie. In Andreev’s concept, the eternal theme of human life and the human soul as the field of the incessant struggle between God and Satan receives a new artistic embodiment for Russian literature, which allows us to speak of him as a writerthinker, philosopher and experimenter. The research is based on the methodological principles of mythopoetic, structural-semiotic and comparative analysis of the text.