The terrible as a sign of the void in the Z. N. Gippius dilogy "The Devil's Doll" and "Roman Tsarevich"

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to describe the modus of artistry "the terrible " in the novel dilogy of Z. N. Gippius "The Devil's Doll" and "Roman Tsarevich". The article describes the demonic in the work of Z. N. Gippius. It is revealed that the categories "the vulgar" and "the demonic" in the works of Z. N. Gippius are sometimes synonymous, their content is characterized by the emptiness of life, which proceeds as a continuance, not duration. The category of "the terrible" described by Z. According to Freud, the article is presented as a modus of artistry, in which Z. N. Gippius finds expression the demonic/void (non-existent). The scientific novelty of the research lies in the identified and described features of the "terrible" modus of artistry and its application to the analysis of a literary text. Currently, the "terrible" category is being used for research on cinema and Gothic literature. In our work, we show that the "the terrible" can occur outside the horror genre and at the same time play a significant role in the work. As a result of the study, it was shown that the entropy motif characteristic of the modern era in the work of Z. N. Gippius is expressed in the modi of the vulgar and the demonic. The article proposes a literary interpretation of the aesthetic category "the terrible" and analyzes the novel dilogy of Z. N. Gippius through the prism of the designated modus of artistry. The question was raised about the separation of the terrible, the horrible and the frightful as the modi of artistry with their own peculiarities of representing man and the world.