THE BOOK OF POEMS IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY ... - TopReferat

As yet the addressee has not been definitively revealed, 110 yet considerable
evidence points to the Catholic saint Thérèse of Lisieux, or Saint Teresa of the Child
Jesus. After first establishing this connection, I will argue that Teresa serves as a
spiritual model for Gippius when writing Сияния. Her presence is indeed felt throughout
the book.
Saint Teresa was a Carmelite nun born in 1873, just a few years after Gippius.
While her life was relatively unremarkable—she lived only twenty-four years—she is
remembered for a collection of epistolary essays published under the title Histoire d'une
âme in which she described her childhood, entrance into the convent at the age of 15, and
terrible physical and spiritual suffering throughout her short life. Teresa frequently
struggled with religious doubt, even up to her final days. Her dramatic swings from pure
faith to depression and guilt found a resonance in Gippius's own spiritual journey.
Gippius repeatedly mentions her devotion to Saint Teresa in letters and diaries. She and
Merezhkovsky visited the church of Teresa in Paris every week and had a statue of her in
their home. At the time of the writing of Сияния, Merezhkovsky was working on a
biographical novel about Teresa (Маленькая Тереза) as part of his series Лица святых
от Иисуса к нам. Gippius actively participated in the preparation of the book, gathering
materials for her husband.
110 In the commentary to the recent edition of Gippius's verse by Novaia biblioteka poeta (1999) no
suggestions are made. While conceding that a "real" referent may be found by biographers, Oleg Kling
claims that the epigraph is addressed primarily to Blok. He also proposes that the entire book is based upon
features of Blok's "Стихи о прекрасной даме." Oleg Kling, "Evoliutsiia i 'latentnoe' sushchestvovanie
simvolizma posle oktiabria," Voprosy literatury 4 (July-August 1999): 55-56.
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