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Anthroposophy in Kotik Letaev
Author(s) -
Janeček Gerald
Publication year - 1974
Publication title -
orbis litterarum
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.109
H-Index - 8
eISSN - 1600-0730
pISSN - 0105-7510
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0730.1973.tb01033.x
Subject(s) - soul , doctrine , theosophy , id, ego and super ego , guardian , occult , philosophy , human body , psychoanalysis , literature , art , art history , psychology , epistemology , theology , medicine , law , anatomy , alternative medicine , pathology , political science
The purpose of this study is to establish points of contact between the writings of Rudolf Steiner and Andrej Belyj's novel. Several of Steiner's most pertinent works have been selected to demonstrate that there is a substructure, probably not evident to the general reader, which relates directly to Anthroposophy and that Kotik Letaev is, at least in part, an artistic embodiment of Steiner's precepts. The child gradually experiences the three areas of human nature described by Steiner in Theosophy : the body, the soul (ego) and the spirit. Kotik also retraces the historical evolution of the human race (World Soul) as presented in The Occult Mysteries of Antiquity , as well as ascending the stages of Higher Knowledge, and there are indications that he encounters the Guardian of the Threshold. The doctrine of colors also plays a role in the novel. In fact, Kotik Letaev is virtually saturated with anthroposophical imagery and ideas. In conclusion, Šklovskj's view of the two‐warring dominants in the work, the anthroposophical and the autobiographical, is discussed and an opposing view is advanced, that the anthropo‐sophical level successfully subordinates the autobiographical, thus maintaining the unity of the work.