Orpheus, Dionysus and dreams of regeneration: Some philosophic and literary themes of the 19th century

• Authors: Yermolenko Volodymyr

Title variants

UK

Орфей, Діоніс та мрії про регенерацію: філософсько-літературні сюжети XIX сторіччя

• Languages of publication: UK

Abstracts

EN

The article is focused on analysis of the metaphor or “palingenesis” (new birth, re-birth, regeneration) in philosophic, literary, social and political contexts of the 19th century. The author analyzes the history of the metaphor from the romantic Orphic context (Ballanche, Chateaubriand, Michelet, Mickiewicz) to the fin de siècle’s Dionysian context. Through the history of this metaphor the author shows a number of key topics of the 19th century: a vision of the human history as a cycle of catastrophes, a concept of humanity as a single body going through the history of “deaths” and “new births”, and a belief that the human history necessarily goes through catastrophic revolutions. The story goes to Nietzsche’s “Ewige Wiederkehr des Gleichen” that the author shows as both continuation of the 19th century topics, and the end of the palingenesis discourse.

Keywords

EN

palingenesis, regeneration, revolution, Ballanche, Nietzsche

• Publisher: G.S. Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
• Journal: Філософська Думка
• Year: 2011
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 83-98

Contributors

author

Yermolenko Volodymyr