The Hypnotized: Alexander Beliaev and Mikhail Bulgakov, a Conversation about the Human Soul across Time and Space

• In Event: Medical Humanities III: Narrating the Psyche: Representations of Hypnosis, Mental Illness, and Postpartum Depression in Russian Literature

Abstract

In this talk I compare the uses of hypnosis in two novels, Alexander Beliaev’s Ruler of the World (1926-1929) and Mikhail Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita (1928-1940). I begin with briefly outlining the status of hypnosis both as an accepted medical practice (a popular modality of psychotherapy) and as a public spectacle of the “mysterious phenomenon of the human psyche” in 1920s Russia by analyzing its representation on stage, screen, and pages of popular publications. I then scrutinize Beliaev’s portrayal of hypnosis as an instrument of “the world domination”, detailing its settings, sources, and goals. I move on to examine Bulgakov’s depiction of hypnosis as part of the “mysterious powers” of Woland and his entourage, documenting in turn its settings, sources, and goals. A careful comparison of the two novels uncovers in Master and Margarita direct borrowings from, close parallels with, and powerful counterpoints to, Ruler of the World.  Although, undoubtedly, both novels had some common roots in such earlier presentations as the villainous hypnotist Svengali of George Du Maurier’s novel Trilby (1894), and the title characters of the famous 1920s motion pictures, Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene, 1920) and Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler (Fritz Lang, 1922), I argue that Bulgakov’s depiction of hypnosis meant to challenge the concurrent attempts by Soviet scientists and ideologues at the “electrification” and “mechanization” of the human soul featured in Beliaev’s vision.

Author

• Nikolai Krementsov, U of Toronto (Canada)