“Hoffman complex” in the stories of Ap. Grigoriev “One of many” and “The other of many”

Abstract

The problem of the formation of the “Hoffman text of Russian literature” is considered on the material of the prose heritage of Ap. Grigoriev. In the novels “One of Many” (1846) and “The Other of Many” (1847) by Ap. Grigoriev the main features of Hoffmann poetics are highlighted, which manifest themselves in its entirety and are characterized by the common stylistics of these two authors (“destructive irony”), Grigoriev's appeal to Hoffmann's type of demonic hero (Imeretinov, Zvanintsev), dating back to Hoffmann's novel “Elixirs of the Devil”, as well as similar problems. It is noted that Ap. Grigoriev, following Hoffman, conceptualizes the problem of forcible influence on the personality of another as based on the idea of magnetism. similarities in the authors' treatment of the problem of the necrosis of human life (in Ap. Grigoriev) and the mechanization of life and man (by E.T.A. Hoffman) are noted by means of the example of the images in the stories of Ap. Grigoriev (Zvanintsev, Imeretinov) and the images-symbols of masks, dolls, automatons, puppets of E.T.A. Hoffman’s stories (“The Sandman”, “Automatons”, etc.). And, finally, attention is drawn to the fact that duality as one of the key problems of Hoffman's work is being developed in Grigoriev's novels (the “mirroring” of the twin heroes Zvanintsev – Vertebrae, Sevsky; Imeretinov – Chabrin). The results of the conducted research show a bright layer of Hoffmann intertext in the stories “One of Many” and “The Other of Many” by A. Grigoriev, which allows us to talk about the work of the Russian writer as a significant stage in the formation of the Hoffmann text (“supertext”) of Russian literature.