Vo Glubine Tainstvennyx Stixij
: the Role of Science in German Romanticism and in Vladimir Odoevskij's Russian Nights
Marina
Aptekman
In speaking about the sources which might have influenced
Russian Nights by Vladimir Odoevskij, critics tend to
agree on the serious impact of the philosophy of German Romantic
writers on Odoevskij's own philosophical views. Just as Romantic
writers did in their works, in his book Odoevskij tries to unite
mysticism and magic, philosophy and Science. As V. Gippius notes,
Russian Nights is a romantic universal novel, the
search to make sense of the world through studying the links between
various phenomena.
However, it seems to me that while the
structure and the ideology of Russian Nights derive
strongly from the writings of German Romantics, Odoevskij's own
interpretation of this ideology, as well as the context of the book,
differ strongly from his predecessors. In particular, in my paper I
intend to concentrate on the similarities and differences between the
attitudes of German Romantics and V. Odoevskij towards Science. Just
as German Romantics did, Odoevskij assumes that the absolute knowledge
leads the world to destruction. He, like Hoffmann or Wackenroder,
always stresses that absolute knowledge kills the mystery in the
world, and therefore, kills creativity. However, Odoevskij is much
less hostile to the development of Science, especially applied
Science, than German Romantics. While E. T. A. Hoffmann, for example,
has always regarded applied Science as a destructive force, Odoevskij
believes that it may be used for both Good and Evil, and can be either
destructive or positive. I would argue that the reason for this
difference lies in the fact that Odoevskij's book appeared half a
century after German Romantic writings, that it to say, in the
mid-nineteenth century, when applied Science was developing rapidly,
so Odoevskij could see both its benefits and its dangers. He is
fascinated by the inventions of applied Science, yet he is also afraid
of their possible impact and he believes that these inventions bear a
strong mystical meaning. One can argue that in his views on Science
Odoevskij may be seen as a predecessor of the Symbolists.
In my paper I will analyze the German Romantic views of Science and
will indicate the major differences and the similarities between
German Romantics' and Odoevskij's attitudes towards applied Science
through both the close textual analysis and historical evidence.