Fending off Tolstoy’s contagion: the poetics of the responsible sign in post-symbolist reflection (Kuzmin, Wittgenstein, Pasternak)
Abstract
We examine the transformation of Tolstoy's theory of artistic «contagion» in the modernist era through the lens of M. Kuzmin's short story «High Art» (1910). We analyze Kuzmin's critique of two forms of «contagion»: 1) direct emotional influence (dogmatic «pathos») and 2) indirect «contagion by noise» (the idle talk of the era). By juxtaposing this with the philosophy of L. Wittgenstein (the concept of language games and his critique of symbolism) and the psychology of art of L. Vygotsky, we reveal the oscillation of the symbolist between these inadequate models. We formulate a post-symbolist «formula of the responsible sign», which stands against both dogma and noise. Using the examples of the poetics of omission in Kuzmin and the incorporation of text in B. Pasternak («Zhivago's notebook»), we trace the evolution from critique to synthesis: art as the institution of a new language game and form of life. The conclusion highlights the shift from a model of direct communication (Tolstoy) to the modernist model of art as the creation of autonomous, life-affirming linguistic practices.