Concept of HORROR in Prose of Silver Age (“Vampiric” Stories of A. Amphiteatrov)
https://doi.org/10.24224/2227-1295-2025-14-6-333-354
Abstract
This study examines the novella writing of A. Amphiteatrov within the context of the “vampiric” prose tradition. The novelty of this research lies in its exploration of the specific representation of the concept of HORROR in the author’s stories for the first time. It is established that in Amphiteatrov's novellas, terror arises from a total sense of hopelessness and the characters' inability to comprehend their circumstances. Notably, in the story “He,” the means of representing the concept of HORROR include a gothic chronotope and a vampire, which disrupts the characters' ordinary lives and places the protagonist in a realm of uncontrollable terror intertwined with passion and an intense desire for closeness with the object of attraction. It is demonstrated that in “The Cimmerian Illness” and “The Story of One Madness,” the embodiment of the examined concept occurs through the figure of the vampire, which serves as an allusion to a character in the poem “The Corinthian Bride.” The authors conclude that the concept of HORROR in Amphiteatrov’s analyzed novellas contributes to the formation of a discourse on the abnormal and psychopathic in Russian Silver Age literature: characters confronted with infernal forces experience pathological horror — stemming from their inability to delineate the boundaries between the real and the unreal, the rational and the irrational, as well as from their awareness of disorientation in the “real” world and ultimately, the loss of self.
Keywords
Silver Age prose,
tradition of vampire representation,
novella writing of A. Amphiteatrov,
concept of HORROR,
gothic topoi
Supporting agencies: The study was supported by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation № 25-18-00764, https://rscf.ru/project/25-18-00764/; (Russian Christian Humanitarian Academy named after Fyodor Dostoevsky)
About the Authors
O. Yu. Osmukhina
National Research Ogarev Mordovia State University; Russian Christian Humanitarian Academy named after Fyodor Dostoevsky
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Olga Yu. Osmukhina, Doctor of Philology, Professor, Head of the Department of Russian and Foreign Literature
Saransk
St. Petersburg
N. M. Mironov
Russian Christian Humanitarian Academy named after Fyodor Dostoevsky
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Nikita M. Mironov, Project executor, Scientific Project Support Department
St. Petersburg
References
1. Aksamentov, Yu. V. (2022). Traditions of Gothic literature in Olshevri’s novel “Vampires”. Art Logos (TheArt of the Word), 2 (19): 15—30. DOI: 10.35231/25419803_2022_2_15. (In Russ.).
2. Antonov, S. A. (2007). The thin red line. Notes on the vampiric paradigm in Western Literature and Culture. In: “Dracula’s Guest” and other vampire Stories: a collection. Saint Petersburg: ABC Classics. 5—86. (In Russ.).
3. Birkhead, E. (2012). The tale of terror: a study of the gothic romance. Auckland: The Floating Press. 302 p.
4. Cheyne, R. (2019). Horror: Fearful Bodyminds. In Disability, Literature, Genre: Representation and Affect in Contemporary Fiction. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. 27—52.
5. Chuprinin, S. I. (1979). “The defendants” — environment — reality (On the characteristics of Russian naturalism). Questions of Literature, 7: 125—160. (In Russ.).
6. Dolgikh, Yu. A. (2012). The vampire as a character in Russian fantasy literature of the early 19th century. Summer School on Russian Literature, 8 (1): 216—226. (In Russ.).
7. Gopman, V. (2005). Nosferatu: the fate of myth. In: Stoker B. Dracula. Moscow: Enigma Publ. 555—557. (In Russ.).
8. Gryakalova, N. Y. (2008). The man of modernity. Biography — reflection — writing: [monograph]. Saint Petersburg: Dmitry Bulanin. 382 p. ISBN 5-86007-502-2. (In Russ.).
9. Kalenichenko, O. N. (2000). The fate of small genres in Russian literature at the end of the XIX — beginning of the XX century (Yuletide and Easter stories, modernist novella). Volgograd: Peremena Publ. 232 p. ISBN 9785882344114. (In Russ.).
10. Kovalskaya, A. S. (2021). The genesis of the vampire image in European prose. Science Time, 9 (93): 34—35. (In Russ.).
11. Krasovsky, V. E. (1989). Alexander Amfiteatrov, journalist and writer. In: Sunset of the Old Century: Novels, feuilletons, literary notes. Chisinau: Lit. artike. 632—650. (In Russ.).
12. Kulikova, D. L. (2022). Poetics of the terrible in the works of A. I. Ivanov. PhD Diss. Moscow. 176 p. (In Russ.).
13. Mikhailova, T. A. (2009). Count Dracula: the experience of description. Moscow: OGI. 206 p. ISBN 978-5-94282-523-2. (In Russ.).
14. Mironov, N. M. (2025). The specifics of the reception of the vampire image in the mythology and folklore of the peoples of the world. Art Logos (The Art of the word), 1: 10—23. DOI: 10.35231/25419803_2025_1_10. (In Russ.).
15. Nikolsky, E. V. (2016). Images of vampires in the novels of V. I. Dahl and A. K. Tolstoy in the context of European Romanticism. Studia Humanitatis, 1: 23—31. (In Russ.).
16. Odessky, M. P. (2005). The phenomenon of the vampire. In: Stoker B. Dracula. Moscow: Enigma Publ. 640 p. (In Russ.).
17. Odessky, M. P. (2010). Vampires in the early prose of A. K. Tolstoy. The experience of plot topic construction. Questions of literature, 6: 207—241. (In Russ.).
18. Osmukhina, O.Yu., Tanaseychuk,A. B. (2019). The specifics of the refraction of the Gothic tradition in G. Leroux’s novel “The Phantom of the Opera”. Bulletin of the V. N. Tatishchev Volga State University, 1 (28): 76—84. (In Russ.).
19. Pippin, T. (1997). Apocalyptic Horror. Journal of the Fantastic in theArts, 8 / 2 (30): 198—217.
20. Ploshchuk, A. N. (2014). The theme of vampirism in P. Merime’s collection “Guzla” and in A. S. Pushkin’s cycle “Songs of the Western Slavs”. Bulletin of Pskov State University. The series “Social sciences and humanities”, 5: 107—115. (In Russ.).
21. Prohaszkova, V. (2012). The genre of horror. American International Journal of Contemporary Research, 2 (4): 132—142.
22. Romanova, E. I. (1991). Artistic concepts of the world and man in the naturalistic and symbolist novel (Boborykin, Amfiteatrov, Artsybashev, Sologub, Bely). PhD Diss. Dnepropetrovsk. 170 p. (In Russ.).
23. Salomon, R. B. (2002). Mazes of the Serpent: An Anatomy of Horror Narrative. New York: Cornell University Press. 200 p.
24. Sazonova, Z. N. (2013). The theme of vampirism in modern Russian fantasy: origin and originality. Bulletin of the Nizhny Novgorod Lobachevsky University, 1 (2): 269—272. (In Russ.).
25. Spiridonova (Evstigneeva), L. A. (1977). Russian satirical literature of the early 20th century. Moscow: Nauka Publ. 302 p. (In Russ.).
26. Stewart, S. (1985). The Epistemology of the Horror Story. The Journal of American Folklore, 95 (375): 33—50.
27. Summers, M. (2010). Vampires in beliefs and legends. Moscow: Tsentrpoligraf. 351 p. ISBN 978-5-9524-4941-1. (In Russ.).
28. Tanaseychuk, A. B. (2024). Russian “scary story” of the first half of the twentieth century. In: The Devil’s bride: Russian horror of the early twentieth century from the pages of old magazines. Moscow: RIPOL Classic. 5—12. ISBN 978-5-386-15066-2. (In Russ.).
Review
For citations:
Osmukhina O.Yu., Mironov N.M. Concept of HORROR in Prose of Silver Age (“Vampiric” Stories of A. Amphiteatrov). Nauchnyi dialog. 2025;14(6):333-354. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.24224/2227-1295-2025-14-6-333-354
Views:
65
Email this article 