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Abstract:

The article analyses Der Golem (1915) by G. Meyrink as a text, which includes different motifs, derived from various versions of the original legend and integrated in the author’s contemplations about the process of personality formation. The main focus of the analysis is the central aspect of the legend, and its elaboration within Meyrink’s poetics: the antinomy “rabbi / golem” as a reflection of a wider opposition “creator” (wise) and “creature” (innocent). The relativity of the category “knowledge” / “innocence”, and ambivalence of the demiurgic aspect is reinforced in the novel, on the one hand, by frame narration, on the other hand, by a broad system of characters, formed by multiple pieces of associations centered around the original legend: a rabbi — a father — an archivist — a junk-dealer — a puppeteer — a magician — a carver — a doctor. The idea of division into fragments is fundamental for all Meyrink’s novels, where protagonists are being shaped throughout the narration from “golems” into an absolute entity. Thus, underneath the references to exotic spiritual practices one can see a romantic longing for the missing integrity, as well as the modernist interpretation of the Bildungsroman structure.