Instructor:
Dr. Ilya Vinitsky
Department
of Slavic Languages
THE RED FLOWER:
Madness and Madmen in Russian Culture
In his eyes, this flower was the incarnation of
evil on the earth. It was steeped in blood, in all the blood shed wrongfully in
the world! Gorged with the blood, the gall and the tears of humanity, it stood
triumphant. This flower was a terrible and mysterious being, the adversary of
God, Arimanes, who had clothed himself in a form of innocent and modest
seeming. The flower had to be plucked and bruised to powder. Vsevolod Garshin.
The Red Flower (1883)
MAJOR TOPICS:
1.
Madness and Madmen in Western Philosophy
2.
Madness and Madmen in Western Painting
3.
Madness and Madmen in Russian Painting
4.
Madness and Madmen in Russian Literature: