Dreams are of exceptional importance for me. -M.A. Bulgakov See: 1926 Autobiographical Notes from Bulgakov to Pavel Popov, in J. A. E. Curtis, Manuscripts Don’t Burn: Mikhail Bulgakov, a Life in Letters and Diaries (Woodstock: The Overlook Press, 1992), 79.
My examination of The Master and Margarita is propelled by the following thoughts: Bulgakov was not shy about expressing his anti-Bolshevik sentiments nor his dislike of the ideology behind socialist realism (and the expectations they created for artists). While scholars read The Master and Margarita as an anti-Soviet work, the question remains: why would Bulgakov…
My previous posts outlined six objections to using Jungian archetypal theory as a method for approaching a work of literature. This post presents a few of the benefits that come with using Jung’s theory as a tool for literary analysis. Jung writes that “the human psyche is the womb of all the arts and…
My previous post outline three objections against a Jungian approach to literary analysis. This post offers three more: Objection 4: Jungian literary criticism is nothing more than source hunting, or finding the external sources of a text. While “[t]he discovery of the presence of mythic elements is a beginning,” Brown states, “identification [of these mythic…
My previous post presented two examples of a Jungian approach to The Master and Margarita and offers my addition to a Jungian interpretation of the novel. Gareth Williams warns that while “some of the more puzzling issues raised by the novel” may be interpreted psychologically as Bulgakov’s desire to express “this or that painful aspect…
Previously, I answered the question: Why did I choose Jung as the methodology for my investigation of The Master and Margarita? In short: because Jung’s view of healing from life crisis involves the psyche’s attempt to adapt the individual’s perspective through archetypes and symbols that project the problem into a visible format (i.e., through dreams,…
My previous post introduced my alternative interpretation of The Master and Margarita: as part of Bulgakov’s process of psychological adaption to and recovery from persecution in the Soviet Union. This post focuses on why I chose the analytical psychology of C. G. Jung as the tool of my interpretation. Jung called the process of psychological…
My previous series of post provided an overview of scholarly views of Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita. The forthcoming series of posts will lay out my approach to Bulgakov’s novel, an alternate position that complements past scholarship. My interpretation of The Master and Margarita investigates the possible psychological and spiritual function the novel may…
Previous series of posts outlined three areas of scholarly investigation into The Master and Margarita: the novel as Bulgakov’s view on life as an author within the Stalinist Soviet Union; the novel as Bulgakov’s effort to keep continuity with non-Soviet literary influences; the novel as Bulgakov’s philosophical and theological exploration of the human condition. In…
My previous post discussed the second category of Bulgakov scholarship: The Master and Margarita as a product of previous literary traditions. I presented an overview of scholarship on Bulgakov’s connection to pre-revolutionary Russian authors (i.e., Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and Gogol) and literary traditions (symbolism and romanticism), as well as the link between The Master and Margarita…
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