We E. Zamyatin, or the integrity of the mystery

[This essay attempts to analize Zamiatin's We as an aesthetic whole in which, pace Yuri Tynianov, antiutopia is organically combined with “a fantastic adventure novel.” With this aim in mind We is read not only in its literary context but also in a historical-poetologic perspective, ranging from Hellenistic love/adventure novels to Andrei Belyi's Silver Dove. Following in Belyi's footsteps, Zamiatin develops a Dionysian theme according to the interpretation proposed by Viacheslav Ivanov's interpretation (his conception of the divine unity of existence), making the myth of Dionysus the subject of an aesthetic experiment in the tradition of Mennipian satire. The author of We, to what extent the protagonist-narrator can be associated with his creator, is concerned with the fate of “the whole” not less than with the fate of individual. He is confronted with an unresolved conflict in terms of atheistic consciousness, bearing not only personal and socio-political consequences, but ontological as well., This essay attempts to analize Zamiatin's We as an aesthetic whole in which, pace Yuri Tynianov, antiutopia is organically combined with “a fantastic adventure novel.” With this aim in mind We is read not only in its literary context but also in a historical-poetologic perspective, ranging from Hellenistic love/adventure novels to Andrei Belyi's Silver Dove. Following in Belyi's footsteps, Zamiatin develops a Dionysian theme according to the interpretation proposed by Viacheslav Ivanov's interpretation (his conception of the divine unity of existence), making the myth of Dionysus the subject of an aesthetic experiment in the tradition of Mennipian satire. The author of We, to what extent the protagonist-narrator can be associated with his creator, is concerned with the fate of “the whole” not less than with the fate of individual. He is confronted with an unresolved conflict in terms of atheistic consciousness, bearing not only personal and socio-political consequences, but ontological as well.]