Culture on the road to self-destruction. Victor Pelevin’s prognosis for Russia, read through the prism of C. G. Jung’s analytical psychology
Abstract
The article is an attempt to apply the tools of analytical psychology in the study of contemporary Russian literature. Continuing his research of Victor Pelevin's early prose, presented in the 1 (173) issue of "Russian Studies Review" (2021), author proposes a comprehensive reading of four novels published between 2006 and 2013: Empire V, T., S.N.U.F.F. and Batman-Apollo. From the works of the Russian postmodernist emerges a coherent and even prophetic (as it may seem in retrospect) picture of the gradual decline of Russian culture as a consequence of interrupted process of individuation. This key category in the concept created by C.G. Jung is applied to specific characters and groups presented in Pelevin's novels, but also to a specific social reality. Such perspective is justified by the attitude of the writer himself, who describes the process of creating literary worlds as a way of externalizing mental reality, both in its individual and – what is especially important – the collective aspect. Thus contents of his works can be treated as a manifestation of the Russian collective unconscious and interpreted in terms of C. G. Jung’s analytical psychology.
Keywords
Victor Pelevin, Carl Gustav Jung, individuation, archetypes, Russian culture
Uniwersytet Gdański Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0676-6459
Absolwent Elektroniki na Politechnice Gdańskiej oraz Studiów Wschodnich na Uniwersytecie Gdańskim, w ramach których zajmował się m.in. badaniem współczesnego kina chińskiego i kultury krajów byłego ZSRR. Obecnie doktorant Nauk o Kulturze i Religii w Szkole Doktorskiej Nauk Humanistycznych i Społecznych przy Uniwersytecie Gdańskim. W kręgu jego zainteresowań naukowych znajdują się badania kulturoznawcze i literaturoznawcze z wykorzystaniem metod inspirowanych psychologią analityczną Carla Gustava Junga.
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