“The Hoffman's complex” in A. Remizov's novel “The clock”

The article examines the problem neo-mythological complexes and their functions in Russian literature, in particular, the “Hoffmann complex” based on the example of the novel “The Clock” by A.M. Remizov (1908). The paper argues that the “Hoffmann text of Russian literature” was formed in Russia in the first half of the nineteenth century, consisting of the “Hoffmann’s complex” (plots, images, problems and stylistic features of the German writer), the name - E.T.A. Hoffmann’s myth, and mythologized images of his heroes. The interest in Hoffmann at the turn of the century contributes to the actualization of the “Hoffmann’s complex” in the literature of Russian symbolism. The article analyzes the features of the implementation and transformation of the “Hoffmann’s complex” as an artistic device in the novel “The Clock” by A.M. Remizov: a synthesis of the arts (the construction of the novel as a musical work), real and imaginary worlds (the method of “double reality”), the image of a mirror (the amplification of vices of the surrounding reality and the thoughts of characters), the psychology of the duality (opposition beautiful - ugly, the great - insignificant), a devastating irony, embodied in a grotesque manner of laughter, the problem of mechanization of a man and a society, based on the idea of subjugating a person to the times and turning the person into a mechanism: the opposition alive - inanimate (animating not only objects, such as laughter, bell, walls, but also abstract concepts, such as thoughts, time).