VASILII ROZANOV'S ITALIAN IMPRESSIONS: TEXT VS LITERARY WORK

Italian Impressions by Vasilii Rozanov (1901, 1909) is a thematically traditional text which becomes critical for Rozanov as a writer in his quest for a new form of writing, the form which recreates "the analogous reality" ("non-literature") which two years later was to lead to his famous Solitary. Using Roland Barthes' phraseology, one can say that Rozanov as a writer, who expresses himself in his Italian Impressions, strives for the maximally possible "dominance" of the literary work by the text. The aphoristic form of the later Rozanov, the "life-liberating" potential of which is anticipated by the specific "bodily and concrete" narration typical of Italian Impressions brings about the "dismembering of the writing" which carries out this intention.