Open Access«The Master and Margarita» of M. A. Bulgakov: word that became truth
Author(s) -
Екатерина Павловна Аристова
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
âroslavskij pedagogičeskij vestnik
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1813-1476
pISSN - 1813-145X
DOI - 10.20323/1813-145x-2021-4-121-168-174
Subject(s) - destiny (iss module) , meaning (existential) , subject (documents) , interpretation (philosophy) , reading (process) , philosophy , ideology , literature , the imaginary , aesthetics , epistemology , psychoanalysis , art , law , psychology , politics , linguistics , computer science , physics , astronomy , library science , political science
The article presents a reading of the novel by M. A. Bulgakov «The Master and Margarita» as an interpretation of the philosophical problem of the connection between word and reality discussed in European thought in the second half of the 20th century in the works of J. Derrida, J. Baudrillard, R. Barthes and others. In «The Master and Margarita», the loss of a sense of reality is shown through the fine line between fiction and prophecy. The writer appears, on the one hand, as an obsessed and insane, on the other hand, as one who is able to speak truthfully when reality is fictitious, just as the ideological and bureaucratic atmosphere of the USSR in the 1930s (it is shown in the novel as a space of signs that have lost the signified, as fiction and theater). A distinctive feature of M. A. Bulgakov’s novel is attention to the destiny of the speaking person. The religious motive of personal speech as a personal response to God can be opposed to the philosophical concept of the «death of the author» by R. Barthes and M. Foucault. This personality of speech is important in the situation of the Stalinist period, when a person could disappear forever. Interpretations of the key figures of the novel are given: Woland as a liar-teller, the Master as a writer, capable of telling not a lie, but the truth through his fiction, Margarita as a force of love, capable of recklessly choosing her subject and giving it meaning even among general nonsense. The images of the execution of Pontius Pilate and the Master's award reflect the two destinys of the ambiguous speaker: the torment of a coward who does not dare to speak openly and a cosy space for creativity that gives freedom and hope.