Pechorin's Demons: Representations of the Demonic in Lermontov's "A Hero of Our Time"
2004; Modern Humanities Research Association; Volume: 99; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/mlr.2004.a826471
ISSN2222-4319
Autores Tópico(s)Historical and Modern Theater Studies
ResumoThis essay seeks to identify the rhetoric used to elucidate the presence of the demonic in Lermontov's "A Hero of Our Time", and to show how that rhetoric is derived from Russian and Georgian folk tradition, from European Byronic Romanticism, and from the belief widely held in Christian culture that the act of narrative itself may be contaminated by demonism. Lermontov's use of the demonic is mapped on to the ludic qualities of A Hero of Our Time, and its significance emerges only gradually from the systematic unravelling of narratives that lack authority. Eventually, the core of Pechorin's demonism is shown to reside in his tendency to relate to others in an authorial way and in his willingness to take into his own hands the authorship of his fate.
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