THE IMAGE OF VENICE IN HENRI DE REGNIER’S PROSE

Natalia V.Rusinova¹*, Tatiana P.Astankova², Nadejda G. Bajenova³, Maria A. Serebryakova⁴, Tatiana A. Mitrofanova⁵*

¹Assoc. Prof., Mari State University, Russia, nroussinova@yandex.ru
²Assoc. Prof., Mari State University, Russia, t.astankova@yandex.ru
³Assoc. Prof., Mari State University, Russia, bng2901@yandex.ru
⁴Assoc. Prof., Mari State University, Russia, mserebryakova80@mail.ru
⁵Assoc. Prof., Mari State University, Russia, mitrofanowa.ta@gmail.com
*Corresponding author

Abstract

The focus of the article is on the image of Venice in the short stories by the French writer Henri de Regnier (1864-1936), a poet and a prose writer, whose work complements the general picture of French culture at the turn of the 19th century, a contradictory period, which was called «La belle époque» in the West.

The article deals with the image of a city-maze, a city-museum. The motif of the maze in Regnier’s prose has mythological associations; the characters’ wandering in the maze is understood as a metaphor for their search for their own identities.

The article analyzes the influence of various aesthetic movements of the turn of the 19th century on the writer’s work. The influence of symbolism can be traced in the motif of destruction, which significantly affects the organization of the artistic space. It is saturated with signs indicating the movement towards the end, a decline. The world of things in Regnier’s short stories is vivid and tangible. Regnier’s love of visual and graphic images can be explained by the influence of T.Gautier and the Parnassians.
In Regnier’s works Venice is depicted as a huge museum expressing the writer’s nostalgia for the beauty and harmony of classical culture. The analysis of the image of Venice in the French writer’s short stories testifies to Regnier’s sensitivity to the aesthetic side of the outgoing world. Idealizing the past, Regnier expresses a person’s insecurity and anxiety during the disharmonious time of the transitional period.

Thus, presenting Venice as a city-maze, a city-museum, Henri de Regnier writes about time, about the past "glancing" through modernity and possessing aesthetic superiority over modernity.

Keywords: Henri de Regnier, the turn of the 19th century, the image of Venice.