Russian writing: Constants and interpretations

Abstract

This article addresses creative discursive practices through the concept of ‘writing’, drawing conceptual links with the fundamental tenets of Vasily Rozanov’s literary and critical work, with Nikolai Vasiliev’s ideas of the ‘logic of the imaginary’, and Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky’s metaphysics of literature. These perspectives share a common ground in the trans-contradictory nature of meaning, the dominance of relationships, the importance of the transpersonal characteristics of creativity, and the representation of the subject as a witness. It is shown that similar meanings arise in different fields of the humanities and literary creativity, forming a unifying ‘metaphysics of sensitivity’ (N. M. Bakhtin) where ideas and experiences are mutually addressed. The article brings to the fore the theme of enantiodromia, where the energy of meaning is born from contradictory mutual aspirations residing in the relationships of ‘inseparability/non-fusion’ — a concept deeply analyzed by the representatives of the aesthetics of Russian Symbolism. The article substantiates the view that a structural–spatial approach to the problem of writing makes it possible to identify and affirm the dominant constants of reflection, creativity, and ‘life-building’. The historical development of the problem of constants and interpretations of the concept of ‘writing’ is linked to the Russian Formalists’ theory of poetic language. This refers to the poetic as an embodiment of writing in its special connection with the philosophical, anthropological, ethical, and political components of consciousness and ‘life-building’. The article considers the significant influence of poetic language — as a specially organized autonomous phenomenon — on the formation of the concepts of text, writing, discourse, and events, and ultimately on the formation of relevant anthropological conceptions of the creative subject as a witness.