Интуиция магического в теории: “Медленное чтение” М.О. Гершензона

M.O. Gershenzon theorized that poetry is a magic action which appeals directly to “the primal myth”. The primal myth in the poetic word is opposed to metaphorical meaning in its rhetorical sense (as A.A. Potebnja described it). A poet sees an invisible world and really believes in the existence of ghosts (Gershenzon stated this in The Poet’s Vision, Pushkin’s Wisdom, Gulfstream, etc.). The magic poetic word of antiquity is no longer accessible to the understanding of the modern reader. Therefore, Gershenzon thought, a scholar / exegete must have congenial intuition in order to reveal the word from under layers of obliterated metaphors. It is ironic that for many decades this view was realized as a metaphorical style of thinking, almost destroying itself. But the theoretical ideas connected with this view went unnoticed (unlike the theory of Russian formalists, who also relied on Potebnja’s ideas about the genesis of metaphor). Gershenzon’s theoretical intuition is based on transference of the properties of the studied subject (the primal myth in a poet’s word) into research itself (attempts to reveal the poetic word’s “spell” through slow reading), making the magic a constructive element of the theory.