Image Of A Person In The O. Loerke’s «Blauer Abend In Berlin»

Abstract

The tumultuous events of the early XXI century, affecting all spheres of social and psychological life of a person, greatly shattered customs, moral foundations and stereotypes of thinking. With the loss of ethical ideals and ideas, people began to feel insecure, uncertain and unpredictable. The article analyzes the phenomenon of uncertainty as a mechanism of form and meaning formation in the verbal art. The purpose of the work is to study the phenomenon of uncertainty as an artistic language of the twentieth century. The material of the study was a poem by one of the brightest German-language poets, Oscar Lerke, «Blauer Abend in Berlin». Structural-descriptive and structural-typological methods were used in the work. The concept of uncertainty is considered as a «threshold», as one of the functional forms of the border-the mechanism of form and meaning formation in art. The paper shows how the experience of experiencing the «threshold» is realized in the internal structure of a lyrical utterance, transforming into an artistic language. The study represents the next step in the study of the artistic language of the twentieth century as the language of the border. This determines the theoretical contribution of the work. The practical significance is the possibility of using the results of the research in the preparation of courses on the theory of literature and foreign literature of the twentieth century.

Keywords: Oscar Lerke, boundary language, uncertainty, threshold, chaos

Introduction

A whole series of social upheavals and catastrophes, scientific discoveries and inventions, the rapid development of IT technologies have greatly changed the human mindset of the XXI century. The usual borders, geographical and political, social and moral-ideological, have been shaken. Waves of emigrants and refugees flooded Europe, breaking the usual stereotypes and ways of life and bringing with them their own ideas and habits. The invasion of another culture actualized the boundaries of one's own culture, confirming them or questioning them. The invasion of another culture actualized the boundaries of one's own culture, confirming them or questioning them. The pandemic, affecting people all over the world, united them in the face of danger, but at the same time divided, not only peoples, but also relatives and friends, forcing them to distance themselves from each other. The entry of the Internet into the life of the common man, along with the enormous opportunities, has given rise to a sense of anonymity and a sense of impunity and permissiveness. The loss of the usual moral and ethical norms and foundations, the loss of moral guidelines gave a sense of boundless freedom from the power of the old. But along with the feeling of freedom from the dictates of all kinds of rules and restrictions, the need to make your own choice has entered into a person's life.

The phenomenon of uncertainty is particularly relevant in our time. The concept of uncertainty has attracted the attention of philosophers since the time of Kant and is being successfully developed today (Dorozhkin & Sokolova, 2015; Urmantsev, 2008). Cultural scientists and sociologists were also interested in this problem. Let us separate ourselves from research in the socio-cultural context (Goffman, 1997; Luhmann, 1987; Waldenfels, 1998) and focus on the semiotic aspect of the concept of "uncertainty". (https://www.merriam-webster.com).

Problem Statement

Uncertainty in itself is the opposition to certainty, which has deterministic boundaries of what is collected in a single space, time, and material and is separated from the other by some of the characteristics laid down in the basis. But as a state of the system, uncertainty is not unlimited, it can change. Uncertainty is a "measure of information", Lotman (2004) notes, which decreases with increasing information. "The minimum information is contained in the choice of one of two equally probable possibilities”. When the system is "in a highly non-equilibrium situation, it is impossible to predict what the next state it will go to" (Prigozhin & Stengers, 1986, p. 56). "At this moment, the decisive role can be played by chance", which is understood as "not causelessness, but only phenomena from another causal series" (Prigozhin & Stengers, 1986, p. 98).

The presence of the so-called human factor makes up the specifics of historical development, increasing the share of uncertainty. Thus, Yu.M. Lotman, referring to the works of L. Szilard, points out that "at the points of bifurcation, not only the mechanism of chance comes into play, but also the mechanism, which becomes the most important element of the historical process" (italics - Yu.L.) (Lotman, 2004, p. 76). "The historical moments when the tension of the contradictory structural poles reaches the moment of the highest tension and the whole system goes out of the state of equilibrium", in the terminology of I. Prigozhin, are called "bifurcation points". "At these moments, the behavior of both individuals and the masses ceases to be automatically predictable..." (Lotman, 2004, p. 91). Such moments turn out to be "moments of revolutions or abrupt historical shifts". Which path will be realized in this case depends not only on the complex of accidents, but also to a greater extent on the self-consciousness of the individual. The doubts that arise during the choice also lead to a state of uncertainty to varying degrees, uncertainty and confusion.

Research Questions

The state of uncertainty, lack of information requires a person to make a decision, as a result of which the development of the system can go in any direction. Such moments of "explosion" (Yu. M. Lotman) turn out to be the beginning of another stage. Metaphorically, the socio-psychological experience of a person in a state of uncertainty can be characterized as the experience of the threshold, as one of the functional forms of the boundary, spatial, temporal, ideological, existential, aesthetic and moral. The boundaries that "are overcome when entering a different order and do not move together with the subject as a horizon line" (Waldenfels, 1998) are called a threshold. Overcoming the boundary, imprinted in the experience, entails a change in consciousness. Due to the position of non-necessity, the subject has a sense of freedom, but at the same time, with the loss of the usual moral support, he feels confusion, uncertainty and fear.

The threshold phenomenon has a space-time dimension. The threshold appears as a kind of buffer, sanitary zone, separating one space from another and experiencing pressure both on one side and on the other. Bounded on both sides, the border strip, which is distinct and at the same time has common features belonging to both sides, has its own borders, thanks to which it retains its independence, its order. Waldenfels defines the essence of order by the concept of "chaos" (Waldenfels, 1998), G. Plumpe as "a special topos of a gap, a gap in space and time" (Plumpe, 2003, p. 26), according to Rymar (2004), the threshold is "a decentered and transgressively oriented being on the border" (p. 5). The threshold experience appears in its heterogeneity in several stages. Pushing the subject to the periphery of the established and habitual order, which precedes the breaking of the border, switching the code of one order and entering another - an unknown, unstable, negating the previous order. Within the threshold space, the subject experiences a similar situation of uncertainty and confusion even more intensely, because with the loss of a strong connection with past experience, the ground under his feet is shaken. Having lost the moral support, a person has not yet chosen new guidelines and has not decided on new values. For the period when the subject is in the "between" state, a "loss of control" (P. Valeri) is characteristic due to the loss of a certain goal and direction. However, the state of uncertainty as chaos cannot continue indefinitely, it has a time frame. It either fades, leading to the system rotting, or, having received an impulse, it goes out of control, leading the system either to destruction, or to a transition to a new more differentiated level of ordering.

The presence of a person in conditions of uncertainty, in a state of "between", requires him to make a decision. In everyday life, for example, you can often hear: "Well, you really decide, either there or here". The choice requires some effort and time. Conscious choice requires an understanding of your inner self, an awareness of your identity. A threshold situation is a period of choosing moral supports and ethical values, finding life goals in changed circumstances and relationships. The search is accompanied by a sense of freedom from previous patterns of perception and a state of emptiness, which potentially hides the structures of all the bodies that are to be created (Lotman, 2002). Being "on the threshold" or "between" is characterized by two oppositely directed vectors: one is directed to the past, from which, denying it, the subject repels, the other – to the future. All this structures the special position of the subject – the position of its non-necessity in relation to both worlds. The distance to the world order allows the subject to judge it critically. The threshold situation, thus revealing itself as a source of chaos and freedom, intensively structures the dialogue situation and can be productive.

Purpose of the Study

The threshold as one of the functional forms of the border was under the close attention of not only philosophers, cultural scientists and art historians, but also writers. The artists of the twentieth century were faced with the task of finding a new artistic language in the changed conditions. Therefore, the study of the artistic utterance of German-speaking writers and poets of the twentieth century, who experienced and subtly felt the human condition in conditions of uncertainty, can also be fruitful in terms of understanding the transformation of the experience of the threshold into an artistic language. The aim of our work is to study the uncertainty in the artistic language of the twentieth century. The scientific and theoretical significance of the study lies in the fact that the interpretation of the transformation of the experience of uncertainty into an artistic language on the example of a poem by Oscar Lerke (Oskar Loerke, 1884-1941) complements and deepens the theory of the border (Lotman, 2004; Rymar, 2006; Plumpe, 2003), and also represents the work of Lerke in a new aspect – from the point of view of the activity of the creative subject (Melnikova, 2016; Rymar & Skobelev, 1994). In this aspect, no research has been conducted on the lyrics of Oscar Lerke (Gebhard, 2007).

Research Methods

The methodological basis was theoretical works on semiotics and aesthetics, as well as on the theory of boundaries by M. M. Bakhtin, Yu. M. Lotman, E. Goffman, B. Waldenfels, G. Plumpe, N. T. Rymar, etc. Structural-descriptive and structural-typological methods were used in the work. The concept of uncertainty is considered as a "threshold", as one of the functional forms of the border, which appears as a mechanism for the formation of form and meaning in art and becomes the language of art. The purpose of the study is to show how the experience of the "threshold" is realized in the internal structure of a lyrical utterance, transforming into an artistic language.

Findings

The growth of large cities caused a sharp sense of uncertainty and anxiety in the worldview of a person at the turn of the century. Torn out of the native soil, having lost the support under his feet, a person experienced changes in the usual way of life as a threat to his existence. Machines have freed man from hard physical labor, but along with the liberation they have brought certain limitations to man's life. Having lost the immediacy of communication with each other and with the surrounding nature, a person found himself in isolation.

Perhaps the Expressionists were among the first to speak about the impending threat of enslavement of man by a soulless mechanism. The system of social relations was also presented in the image of a ruthless machine, squeezing everything human out of a person. Keenly aware of the meaninglessness and cruelty of the world, the Expressionists tried to discover the true meaning of things, to deduce all-encompassing laws. Hence the general disregard for details, semitones, and nuances characteristic of the Expressionists, and the desire for generalization. Thus, the theme of the growth of large cities in the works of naturalists and expressionists found its artistic embodiment in the image of an imminent catastrophe. The poems of E. Lasker-Schuehler ("The End of the World", 1902) and J. van Goddis ("The End of the Century", 1911) are imbued with a premonition of imminent death and impending world catastrophe. The theme of "the city and the little man" is dedicated to the poems of G. Geim "Berlin", "Demons of Cities", "Suburbs", I. Becher ("De Profundis Domine", 1913). The Expressionists were preoccupied with the problem of the expansion of the city into the sphere of the inner life of man. The soul, sensitive to the pain of the enslaved man, suffered without finding a safe refuge in nature. The most vivid image of man and the world in conditions of uncertainty appears in the poem "Blauer Abend in Berlin" (Blue Evening in Berlin) by Oscar Lerke (1911).

Der Himmel fließt in steinernen Kanälen;Denn zu Kanälen steilrecht ausgehauenSind alle Straßen, voll vom Himmelblauen.Und Kuppeln gleichen Bojen, Schlote Pfählen

Im Wasser. Schwarze Essendämpfe schwelenUnd sind wie Wasserpflanzen anzuschauen.Die Leben, die sich ganz am Grunde stauen,Beginnen sacht vom Himmel zu erzählen,

Gemengt, entwirrt nach blauen Melodien.Wie eines Wassers Bodensatz und Tand

Regt sie des Wassers Wille und Verstand

Im Dünen, Kommen, Gehen, Gleiten, Ziehen.Die Menschen sind wie grober bunter SandIm linden Spiel der großen Wellenhand. (Echtermeyer, 2000)

(The sky flows in stone channels; / As all the streets, steeply cut by channels, / are full of heavenly blue. / And domes like buoys, pillars of chimneys // In the water. Black columns of smoke smoulder, / similar to aquatic plants. / The lives that accumulate at the very bottom, / Begin to quietly talk about the sky, // Tangling and unraveling in the wake of the blue melodies. / Like the sediment of the bottom, the turbidity / moves their will and the mind of the water // In the dunes, coming, going, sliding, pulling. / People are like coarse mottled sand / In the gentle play of the huge palm of the wave) (Translated by the author – I. M.).

The title of the poem sets the theme of the transition state in nature – "Blue Evening in Berlin". The attribute "blue", associated in the general cultural context with the aesthetics of romanticism, sets the tone of perception of the image of the world as a mystery and magic. The transition period, when the day has already passed and the night has not yet come, is filled with shaky fantastic images that arise from their interaction with each other. So the sky "flows in stone channels", because the streets themselves, "full of heavenly blue", bounded by high-rises, turned into channels. The world seemed to turn upside down, toppled over. In the relation of the images of the sky and the channels, their opposition is revealed not only in the spatial meaning, but also in the mode of existence. The sky is boundless, mobile and natural. Channels – man-made, artificial, serve to limit the natural element-water. They are the border itself. The sky has fallen down, and the water in the canals is directed upward in its dreams: its inhabitants – "lives" – "begin to talk quietly about the sky". From this confrontation, the "channels" come out victorious; they managed to bind the boundless free sky in stone borders. The city as a symbol of man-made civilization is a threat to nature and to the person who built this city, where there is no place for him now.

The motif of "overturning" ("domes look like buoys", "pillars of chimneys" were at the bottom) reflects the mood of the era, which is characterized by shifting and mixing borders. In the resulting chaos, it is difficult to determine where the real objects are, and where only their reflection is, where the true and false meanings, values and ideals are. The inversion motif becomes a source of dynamics, reinforcing the situation of unpredictability. The state of unpredictability is not only a characteristic feature of a literary text, but also a condition for its existence.

The second stanza is dominated by the motif of fluidity, variability, associated with the image of water. It flooded the entire city, but thanks to it, the inanimate comes to life: "Black chimneys smoulder, like water plants." The water supports "the lives that have accumulated at the very bottom", which "begin to talk softly about the sky, tangling and unraveling, following the blue melodies". The pendulum-like movement to and fro (third stanza), like the pulse, the breath of the most inexhaustible life, obeys the "will and mind of the water." The flip side of the pliability and submissiveness of the "algae" is the flexibility that allows them to survive under the pressure of the natural elements. The motif of inversion is supported by the metamorphosis that takes place here: nature reveals human qualities, but man, on the contrary, is deprived of them. Moreover, it appears only in the fourth stanza and is compared to sand, "rough and mottled". In the universal cultural space, sand is associated with the motives of fluidity (time flows like sand through your fingers), vulnerability to the outside world (dust in the wind). This is the image of a person who has no personality and is completely dependent on the power of the forces of nature. It will simply be carried away by the "huge palm of the wave" if it does not fit into the customs, foundations and rules of the city. But the image of sand can also be interpreted as a huge force that can fill up an entire city with its mass. Such are, for example, the "dunes" ("Im Dünen"). Mobile sand hills can move under the influence of the wind, covering everything in their path. The comparison of a person with a grain of sand expands the scope of unpredictability in his fate.

In the last line, the image of the world in a situation of uncertainty is supplemented by the concept of "game", which translates events into a different register. The main condition of the game is the presence of spatial and temporal boundaries and compliance with the rules. In the game, the element of competition, dispute, and the transition of fortune from one player to another is important. The game takes place as long as the rules are followed by both parties. The game takes place as long as the rules are followed by both parties. So the game turns out to be a mode of human existence in the transition period under conditions of uncertainty. Along with uncertainty and fear, a person gets a sense of freedom and hope for a favorable outcome of events. The theme of the game is also supported in the visual perception. The blue color in the first stanza is the color of the sky and hope, and is transformed in the second stanza into black, which has a wide spectrum. The game takes place as long as the rules are followed by both parties. So the game turns out to be a mode of human existence in the transition period under conditions of uncertainty. Along with uncertainty and fear, a person gets a sense of freedom and hope for a favorable outcome of events. The theme of the game is also supported in the visual perception. The blue color in the first stanza is the color of the sky and hope, and is transformed in the second stanza into black, which has a wide spectrum. It means mystery, and sadness, and the abyss, and the elements and the night. Black absorbs all the colors around, but it is also the color of protection. Then again we see and hear "blue" (the image of synesthesia - "blue melody" "blaue Melodien") and, finally, "motley". The variability of color creates the effect of uncertainty, flickering of meaning, its incompleteness, providing the potential for many interpretations.

Let us look at the "evening in Berlin" in a new perspective, again turning to the first lines of the poem. We note that the theme of the game is included immediately in the first line with the motif of inversion: "the sky flows through stone channels", "the smoke of pipes "turns out to be "water plants". "Tinsel" ("Tand") and the oscillating movement of "seaweed" ("gemengt" - "entwirrt") support the" light" nature of the game ("im linden Spiel"). Who's in the game? The main player is nature, which plays a game with the city as a symbol of industrialization. But the conflict is no longer visible here. Water dominates, it is everywhere, but it does not suppress, but gives life ("life accumulates at the bottom"). The image of water in the universal memory is associated with the ability to wash, purify from dirt and filth. The person in front of the "huge palm of the wave" ("grosse Wellenhand") is defenseless. However, not everything is so clear. The confrontation between nature and man does not lead to a catastrophe. In comparison of a person with a "rough" grain of sand, despite the fact that a huge wave leads a "soft" game, the "inversion" technique is also seen. Then, following this technique, the ability of water to act according to "will and reason" ("des Wassers Wille und Verstand") is understood as a program of action for a person. It turns out that in order to harmoniously fit into the relationship with nature, a person must be guided by will and reason, like nature. The juxtaposition and juxtaposition of images and motifs is a source not only of instability, but also of the generation of new meanings. Top ("sky") – bottom ("water" on asphalt), "rough" – "soft", "black" - "blue" (not only the color, but also the mood: from dark to dreamy-romantic). Active actions ("flows", "moves") are contrasted with static verbs ("smoulders", "accumulates"), a pair of verbs, in the semantics of which the meaning of swinging is: "tangle" – "unravel". Members of the opposition, starting from each other, enter into a relationship with a member of the opposition from another row, generating new unexpected meanings. This is facilitated by the poet's use of anjambeman - the transfer of a sentence or word from one line to another. Thanks to anjambeman, the motif of fluidity and variability is introduced and maintained. The discrepancy between the border of the verse line of the stanza and the borders between the syntagmas actualizes it. The effect of the discrepancy between the syntactic and rhythmic structure of the poetic text contributes to an increase in unpredictability, since the reader's expectations are not met. The poet arranges chaos and unpredictability, organizing the world through the strict form of the sonnet. Thus, the theme of man and the city in Oskar Lerke's poem, thanks to the complex play of motifs and images in their interaction, comparison and opposition, unfolds into a poetic image of the world and man in the condition of uncertainty, where there is a place for man.

"The sphere of uncertainty turns out to be a complex dynamic reservoir in any development processes" (Lotman, 2004). The model of the world in conditions of unpredictability created by Lerke confirms this. His world is not a focus of evil, pain and death, as in the Expressionists. Belief in the rational behavior of man, in his ability, guided by "will and reason", to integrate harmoniously into the higher order created by nature. The poet does not give a ready-made picture of the world. Difficulties caused by vague images, often not clear, awaken the reader's imagination, make him an active participant in the creative process, forcing him to make a choice in the search for an answer. Modeling the situation of meaning generation in the internal structure of the work creates the effect of authenticity of the artistic statement.

Conclusion

The analysis of the specifics of the artistic language of Oscar Lerke from the point of view of the author's creative activity allowed us to more fully reveal the moral and aesthetic orientation of his work. The absolute merit of Lerke is that in an era of cultural crisis, he managed to create a new artistic language that can be trusted. However, it is no less important that in the dark times for Germany, Oscar Lerke offered his contemporaries a positive strategy of thought. The picture of the world created by him was a moral support and a spiritual reference point. His lyrics are not just an aesthetic transformation of the imperfections of life, but a recreation of the objectively existing order and world harmony. From the fusion of the poet's moral and aesthetic views, a poetic picture of the world is formed, at the very foundation of which are dialogical relations.

The results of the study of the specifics of the artistic language of Oscar Lerke's lyrics can be used in the preparation of university courses on literary theory and foreign literature of the twentieth century, as well as special courses on the problems of the border as a phenomenon of the artistic language of the twentieth century. The planned direction can be productive in the study of the artistic language of the lyrics of the twentieth century and significantly deepen the understanding of the work of poets of the turn of the century.

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