Information about the authors:
Aleksandr N. Belarev
Aleksandr N. Belarev, PhD in Philology, Senior Researcher, А.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya St., 25A, bld. 1, 121069 Moscow, Russia.
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3369-7089
E-mail:
Tamara V. Kudryavtseva
Tamara V. Kudryavtseva, DSc in Philology, Director of Research, А.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya 25 а, 121069 Moscow, Russia.
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8279-8639
E-mail:
Abstract:
The article examines the specifics of the German version of Neoromanticism, including in the light of its numerous self-descriptions, and analyzes the features of the refraction of the fantastic component of the Neoromantic artistic system in the work of the speculative fiction writer Paul Scheerbart (1863–1915). The sources that nourished the new “cosmic” worldview of the writer are revealed. The reasons for the writer’s rejection of the realities of modern Germany (technology, militarism, etc.) and for his critical attitude to modern culture are shown, as well as the writer’s reaction to the disappointment in the possibilities of the human mind and to the crisis of traditional culture. The paper discusses the principles that formed the basis of Scheerbart’s “new art” (cosmopolitanism, pacifism, new cosmic thinking), the features of Neoromanticism in Scheerbart’s work, ways to overcome the “mundane” in search of the Other (exoticism and cosmism) and ways to create a fantastic image, while endowing the familiar with the properties of permeability and inventing on this basis new spiritualized forms.
Keywords: Paul Scheerbart, Romanticism, Neoromanticism, Expressionism, speculative fiction, cosmism, escapism, exoticism.
