Universität zu Köln

Tanasijević, Tamara (2019). M. Iu. Lermontov and the science of passions. Masters thesis, Universität zu Köln.

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Abstract

In the works of M.Iu. Lermontov, the frequent use of the word “passion” (“strast’”) catches the attention of any reader. The word is present in his prosaic and poetic works. This thesis makes the first steps to investigate the “science of passions” in Lermontov’s oeuvre. The ages of Enlightenment and Romanticism had produced certain “theories of passions”, proposed by David Hume, Immanuel Kant, Madame de Staël and Charles Fourier. If the novel “Geroi nashego vremeni” is read with the key of this philosophy, a hidden logic of passion becomes visible, which enables us to understand Pechorin’s character. Mastering the art of passions distinguishes Pechorin from all other characters of Lermontov’s oeuvre. In his plays, Lermontov continues Schiller’s “tragedy of passions” in order to transform the passions into an “object of investigation”. Lermontov’s conception of passions can also be traced on a lexical level, in the attributes and topoi that are connected to the word “strast’”. The connection to the semantic fields of “fire” and “water” are striking. This analysis allows us to read poems and nature description that do not explicitly refer to passion as images for the “science of passions”.