Ideological and Artistic Parallels in the Drama Old Gods by Levon Shant and the Novel Resurrection of Gods. Leonardo da Vinci by Dmitry Merezhkovsky

Abstract

The article, considering the connections and relationships of Russian and Armenian literature at a new level, for the first time explores the numerous similarities of an ideological and artistic nature in the drama “Old Gods” by the famous Armenian writer, playwright, teacher, statesman and public figure Levon Shant (Nakhashpetyan-Sekhbosyan) (1869–1951) and in the novel “Resurrection of Gods. Leonardo da Vinci” by the Russian writer, literary critic, poet, religious philosopher, translator and public figure Dmitry Merezhkovsky (1865–1941). The subject of the study are the above-mentioned works. Historical-comparative, comparative, structural-semiotic and mythopoetic methods are used as the methodological basis of the research. The purpose of the article is to study the similarities of the imaginative thinking of Shant and Merezhkovsky, which are primarily manifested in the binary of artistic images. In particular, binary oppositions are compared: white — black, light — darkness, good — evil, teacher — student, worldly — spiritual and others, as well as images and characters having a common symbolic and semantic load։ Seda (Shant) — Venus, Kasandra (Merezhkovsky); Monk (Shant) — Giovanni Beltraffio (Merezhkovsky); Abbot, Someone in White, Hermit (Shant) and Girolamo Savonarola, Merula, Leonardo da Vinci (Merezhkovsky). The purpose of the religious quest of the Merezhkovsky spouses is to build a new church (in their perception, the Church of the Third Testament), in fact, is also the goal of one of the heroes of the Shant’s drama․ In both works, the “disciples” commit suicide (Beltraffio manages to be saved) due to the inability to reconcile contradictions in values. The main problems of the article are the theme of eternal spiritual perfection, the idea of spiritual search and self-realization of a lonely and free personality, which manifest themselves in the drama and novel studied in parallel. Similarities are also observed in the life paths of the writers․ Proceeding from the above, the ideological-artistic and structural-symbolic similarities in their works can be explained both by the general influence of the ideological trends of the era on both authors, and, perhaps, by Shant’s acquaintance with the work of Merezhkovsky․ The research is interdisciplinary, taking into account the fact that the solutions to these problems are at the intersection of literary studies, philosophy, theology and psychology.

Keywords:

Shant, Merezhkovsky, The Old Gods, Resurrection of Gods. Leonardo Da Vinci, similarities, binary oppositions