Narrative Spirit Of Symbolism

D. Merejkovski was the founder of the theory of the symbolism, one of the main Russian literary schools during the so-called "Silver Era" from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century. The school opened the modern Russian literature. His article On the Causes of the Decline of the Contemporary Russian Literature and the New Trend of Thought was considered as the "manifesto of symbolism" by literary historians. At the beginning of the 20th century, the modern literary school of Russian began to develop in the direction foresightedly pointed out by D. Merejkovski in his "manifesto", and the symbolism school soon grew into a strong "individual art". However, D. Merejkovski himself left this literary trend of thought farther and farther later, and failed to become the pioneer of the ever-growing school, and was even looked at as an alien and a separate kind by the modern literary circle. The reason was that he was continuously deepening his symbolism and, by combining it with spiritual renewal movement of the circle of the philosophy of religion existing at the beginning of the 20th century, gave to it a specific kind of implication, making it bear the colour and the world outlook of the philosophy of religion. He spent his whole life practicing his idea of symbolism and gradually formed his own symbolist narrative style, which can be seem in his master pieces-the trilogy of Christianity and Anti-Christianity.Nevertheless, this kind of symbolist narrative style is not merely a narrative style. It reveals a new kind of spiritual pursuit-the pursuit of religious spirit, for which his novels were thought of as "religious novels", contrasting with "social novels" and "civic novels". The symbolist narrative style reflects his idea of thephilosophy of religion-that the development of the history of mankind is actuallya history of struggle between Christianity and anti-Christianity. The scheme of histrilogy is to reflect the Christian idea in history-history of the whole world,including that of all nations and cultures, in other words, the history of everything. Through the symbolist narration of the Christian spirit embodying in the three typicalhistorical characters-the Roman emperor Julian, de Vinci the king of art andscience, and the Russian emperor Peter and his son-the trilogy examines thehistorical development of Europe, Russia, and even the whole world, in the process of the struggle between Christianity and anti-Christianity and that between soul and body, thus symbolizing the significance of the historical development. Merejkovski holds that the tragedy of the history of mankind lies in the fact that mankind has been living in the struggle between Christianity and polytheism and that between soul and body. People failed to combine both parts into one. His heart was full of pursuit of and faith in Christian spirit which has actually compromised the two kinds of truth. And on this basis he founded his specific "new Christian spirit". This "new Christian spirit", or called "new spiritual philosophy", talks and debates with the spirit of positivism and utilitarianism reflected by "social novels" and "civic novels".Merejkovski's symbolist narration and its spirit transcended the vision and spiritual dimension of both social and civic novels literarily, and formed a setup debating and competing with the spirit of positivism and utilitarianism of revolutionary democracy and populism. At the same time, his new Christian spirit is a kind of strong critical force against the dictatorial system, the national system, thesecular church and the secular revolution of Russia, revealing the possibility of true freedom and democracy which could otherwise be brought to the society of mankind only by the religious revolution after the social and political revolution.But the final direction of Merejkovski's lifelong religious-philosophical exploration is to the "social target". His religious philosophy which compromising "the truth in heaven" with "the truth on the earth" and soul with body...