München: Verlag Otto Sagner, 1983. — 160 p."Few problems concerning Tiutchev have had more willing exegetes than his ,philosophy of chaos," remarks Richard Gregg in his book on the poet. It is impossible not to agree with Gregg. Nearly every scholar who has written a critical or descriptive work on Tjutčev has noted the importance of Tjutčev's use of the image of chaos, and concluded that it is connected in some way with the poet's soul. Beyond this point, however, there exists nothing but a veritable chaos of opinions as to the meaning of the symbol. Brjusov, čiževskij, and Setschkareff see Tjutcev’s chaos as a Schellingian primordial beginning of all existence; Culkov views it as passionate love; Leznev asserts that Tjutčev's predilection for the image shows that he was a secret revolutionary, while Gippius warns that such an interpretation totally distorts the basic meaning of the imagery; Gregg himself concludes that chaos represents the poet's subconscious. This lack of consensus seems to be almost preordained for a number of reasons. First, Tjutcev's chaos is not a signal with a one-to-one correspondence between word and object, but a true symbol richly endowed with the capacity to contain a multitude of meanings. Furthermore, the inherent ambiguity of the symbol has been amplified because none of the critics has established any kind of system for gauging the presence of chaos in a poem.Contents.
Introduction.
The Semantic Cluster.
Chaos as a Creative Force.
Chaos and Mystic Transport.
Chaos, Imminent Doom and Revolution.
Conclusion.
Poems and Translations.
Notes.
Bibliography.
