Religion & Passion: Year in a Monastery

The book Religion and Passion in Russia and France offers three psychologically pioneering story poems: Gabri-iliad by Alexander Pushkin (1821), Mythical Book by Alfred de Vigny (1858), and Year in a Monastery by Alexei Apukhtin (1883). In the Romanticist tradition of modern scripture writing, each poet treats a scriptural theme from a modern, rebellious perspective. Pushkin’s poem about Angel Gabriel begins by describing Gabriel’s surprise when, in the course of the famous Annunciation, he discovers he’s in love with Mary himself. Vigny creates a new Bible-type figure, Éloa, who’s a female angel interested in saving Satan. Apukhtin writes a poem in the form of a diary, the journal of a long-time party-goer who seeks a complete refashioning of his life by becoming a novice in a monastery. All three visionaries are trying, I think, to refashion the fruit-eating fable from Genesis 3 in a way that will give passion a chance to defend its cause against the regime of an overbearing lordly superego. I’ll read the opening entries from the Apukhtin journal, plus a brief party-going poem for context.