Information about the author:
Elena E. Tchougounova-Paulson
Elena E. Tchougounova-Paulson, PhD in Philology, Editor of Lovecraftian Proceedings, Independent Scholar, Cambridge, UK.
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Abstract:
Interest in Blok’s prose has noticeably grown in recent decades. Many academic works are dedicated to Blok’s critical essays, his extensive correspondence with various addressees, and his ego-documentary heritage, i. e. notebooks and diaries. Our main task is to examine the specific character of Blok’s “autobiographical myth” regarding the Western European (primarily English and partially American) literary mainstream of the fin de siècle era, i. e. Modernism and the Neo-Gothic — specifically with the names of Arthur Machen, Lord Dunsany, Ambrose Bierce, and Algernon Blackwood, who created the first phase of the modern horror genre and became forerunners of Weird Fiction. We will also attempt to define the crucial elements that demonstrate the Neo-Gothic aspect of Blok’s autobiographical poetics.
Keywords: Alexander Blok, ego-document, The Neo-Gothic, Arthur Machen, horror literature.
