VYACHESLAV IVANOV ON GERMAN ROMANTICISTS

Demonstrating the importance of J. Goethe for the creative life of the contemporary time, V.I. Ivanov emphasizes the symbolic outlook of the German poet. Looking at the development of verbal art during the centuries, Ivanov looks at it as the course of symbolism development. According to Ivanov, Goethe is one of the significant representatives of this movement. The Russian poet writes that the principle of symbolism reflected in Goethe's creative work is topical in the modern time as it now embodies the poetry of the recent years. Ivanov compares two similar attitudes to the antiquity, as Winkelmann and Goethe understand them. If the former wanted to approach the antique world by becoming an ancient man, the latter attempts to be "a cheerful pagan person" who does not care about the values of the "Nordic" world. Goethe is a sunny and clear personality. Antique tragedy the focus of which is centred on Dionysus is alien to him. The poet's soul cannot stand the chaotic, sombre, chthonic features of Dionicism. He wrote about the tragedy, "My soul would break against it". It is known that Nietzsche rejected the tragic nature of Goethe's Faust. In 1794 Goethe met Schiller. Ivanov could not but comment on the arguments about symbolism between them. They understood the term differently. Goethe thought that each individual thing is a reflection of a general idea, its symbol. An idea is a part of a thing; it is immanent to it (following Aristotle). Schiller thought that idea is transcendent to it (following Plato), and objects are just copies of the idea, its symbols. The argument lasted during their entire lives. Ivanov considered Goethe a representative of realistic symbolists. He put the phenomenon of poetry in the centre of his philosophy, and as such he rejected the requirements and cultural preferences of the crowd. Goethe opposed the classic antiquity to the "Nordic barbarity", giving the preference to the former. But the genius could not be one-sided - his Faust is a fusion of two principles: cosmic and chaotic ones, the Greek antiquity and the German Middle Ages. Ivanov considers Novalis an authentic German romanticist. He agrees with V. Zhirmunsky who thought that romanticism and symbolism are parts of the whole, one thing continues the other one; the dream of romanticism became the reality of symbolism. The German romanticism has followers in Russia including V. Zhukovsky, senior Slavophiles, F. Tyutchev, F. Dostoevsky. Underlining the significant influence of Goethe on Novalis, Ivanov stressed his creative ingenuity. Goethe practised pure contemplation, Novalis was solving the problem of action in the world scale; Goethe was the cognition theoretic and Novalis was the embodiment of "world creativity". Ivanov characterizes Goethe's poetry as "weak-willed contemplation", Novalis' poetry - as "theurgy".