The Beloved as the Projection of a Creative Subject: I. Turgenev’s Ghosts and P. Soloviova’s Unprecedented

The article provides a comparative analysis of I.S. Turgenev’s “fantasy” Ghosts and P.S. Soloviova’s novel Unprecedented from the point of view of the functions of the category of the feminine. These works reveal both deep echoes in the plot and intersections at the motif-figurative level (motives of unprecedented love and déjà vu). Both texts tell about the meeting of the hero-creator with his own subconscious, objectified in the image of a beloved ghost, which can also be interpreted as a muse, inspirer, medium, guide to the subconscious or Another in the terminology of J. Lacan. As a result of this meeting, the creative powers of the narrator are revealed (a flight of imagination) or a new creative product is brought to life (a philosophical treatise). After the completion of the process, the vision disappeared, although it strives for embodiment, for realization in the outside world. This proves the statement that the feminine in culture is a construct, a product of the consciousness of the masculine creator. Both stories can be considered as an attempt to explore the creative process, a kind of self-reflection. It is based on the material of works of Russian Symbolism. The novel Ghosts demonstrates the proximity of Turgenev’s late “mysterious” works to the literature of modernism.