The Motif of Demonic Possession in the Poetry of B. Pasternak

The article considers one of the cross-cutting motifs in the poetics of Boris Pasternak — the motif of demonic possession, which is realized mainly through natural images (snowstorm, blizzard, bad weather). The natural world becomes a mirror image of the human world, and this artistic method is in the mainstream of Russian classical literature. However, Pasternak recycles the classic motif, deprives it of an unambiguous negative connotation and gives new meanings to it. The Poet’s knowledge of the Ancient philosophy and New Testament traditions, which left a deep imprint in his personal philosophical beliefs embodied then in his poetry and prose, contributes to it. The combination of these two traditions is most clearly manifested in the motif of demonic possession, which, on the one hand, relegates to evangelical plots about the expulsion of demons, and on the other hand to the Socratic demon, the “divine voice” that metaphorically embodies the thinking part of the soul. It is the ancient tradition that removes unambiguously negative connotation from rampage: bordering on demonic possession and disease, rampage through ecstatic states opens the Dionysian sources of Pasternak’s works.