Memory and music in Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita: Defying the regime

Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita reveals intricate intersections, which are negotiated via memory and writing. Witnessing the collapse of the Russian Empire and the emergence of the Soviet Union, Bulgakov devises multiple ways to engage not only with political and historical changes but w...

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Main Authors: Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed, Timothy D. Saeed
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Montenegro 2017-12-01
Series:Logos et Littera: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Text
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.ll.ac.me/LL%204(2)/6.pdf
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author Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed
Timothy D. Saeed
author_facet Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed
Timothy D. Saeed
author_sort Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed
collection DOAJ
description Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita reveals intricate intersections, which are negotiated via memory and writing. Witnessing the collapse of the Russian Empire and the emergence of the Soviet Union, Bulgakov devises multiple ways to engage not only with political and historical changes but with literary and aesthetic changes as well. Known for its magical and phantasmagorical abundance, The Master and Margarita offers, in addition to a love story, a narrative that reveals the individual’s fragmented memory that is connected with existential uncertainty and lostness brought forth by political oppression. To illuminate the novel’s engagements with memory and existence, this essay brings attention to musical references that Bulgakov employs to produce multilayered narrative dimensions. Although music in Bulgakov’s novel has been mentioned on many occasions, this discussion shifts the emphasis from the writer’s love of music to the responses to the brutality of the Soviet regime and to the conflicts, arising from the state’s attempts to control the individual’s memory, private space. In this essay, memory and music are presented as means to defy the state’s dominance, control, and surveillance.
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spelling doaj.art-0ef2e69b331d490ba78d6deec15e3df52022-12-22T01:43:25ZengUniversity of MontenegroLogos et Littera: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Text2336-98842336-98842017-12-012499114Memory and music in Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita: Defying the regimeNataliya Shpylova-Saeed Timothy D. SaeedMikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita reveals intricate intersections, which are negotiated via memory and writing. Witnessing the collapse of the Russian Empire and the emergence of the Soviet Union, Bulgakov devises multiple ways to engage not only with political and historical changes but with literary and aesthetic changes as well. Known for its magical and phantasmagorical abundance, The Master and Margarita offers, in addition to a love story, a narrative that reveals the individual’s fragmented memory that is connected with existential uncertainty and lostness brought forth by political oppression. To illuminate the novel’s engagements with memory and existence, this essay brings attention to musical references that Bulgakov employs to produce multilayered narrative dimensions. Although music in Bulgakov’s novel has been mentioned on many occasions, this discussion shifts the emphasis from the writer’s love of music to the responses to the brutality of the Soviet regime and to the conflicts, arising from the state’s attempts to control the individual’s memory, private space. In this essay, memory and music are presented as means to defy the state’s dominance, control, and surveillance.http://www.ll.ac.me/LL%204(2)/6.pdfmemorymusicfluidityrhizomemultiplicity
spellingShingle Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed
Timothy D. Saeed
Memory and music in Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita: Defying the regime
Logos et Littera: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Text
memory
music
fluidity
rhizome
multiplicity
title Memory and music in Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita: Defying the regime
title_full Memory and music in Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita: Defying the regime
title_fullStr Memory and music in Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita: Defying the regime
title_full_unstemmed Memory and music in Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita: Defying the regime
title_short Memory and music in Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita: Defying the regime
title_sort memory and music in mikhail bulgakov s the master and margarita defying the regime
topic memory
music
fluidity
rhizome
multiplicity
url http://www.ll.ac.me/LL%204(2)/6.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT nataliyashpylovasaeed memoryandmusicinmikhailbulgakovsthemasterandmargaritadefyingtheregime
AT timothydsaeed memoryandmusicinmikhailbulgakovsthemasterandmargaritadefyingtheregime