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SOURCE: Mills, Judith M. “Of Dreams, Devils, Irrationality, and The Master and Margarita.” In Russian Literature and Psychoanalysis, edited by Daniel Rancour-Laferriere, pp. 303-27. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 1989.
In this essay, Mills explores traditional Russian literary elements as well as modern psychoanalytic dream theory in The Master and Margarita.
A literary work establishes its place within a tradition and assumes its unique character when traditional devices or motifs are put to new or idiosyncratic use. The Master and Margarita1 is both traditional and highly unique. It draws copiously from the Russian literary tradition: the title story reiterates the strong woman/weak or superfluous hero theme that was so fully developed in the nineteenth century; the first person narrator intrudes repeatedly, recalling the novel's beginnings and Pushkin's style; in unmistakably Gogolian fashion bureaucrats' foibles are unmasked; and, the double rears its heads once again.
Bulgakov uses the dreams...
This section contains 10,275 words (approx. 35 pages at 300 words per page) |
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