A trial by animalism, or quadrupedal provocation in Leonid Andreev’s works

Abstract

One of the defining characteristics that separate humans from animals is the number of legs. The ‘all fours’ motif receives an original interpretation in Leonid Andreev’s oeuvre. The artistic realization of this motif is found in the depiction of Doctor Kerzhentsev’s anguish and temptation (in the short story ‘A Thought’ [‘Mysl’]), the Tsar’s ‘intentional beastliness’ (‘From Centuries Ago’ [‘Iz glubiny vekov’]), and the reverse evolution of the beast and the man in the play A Thought. The vestiges of the motif are found in the hero’s handstand in ‘The Red Laugh’ [‘Krasniy smekh’], the scene of the whipping of peasants (‘The Governor’ [‘Gubernator’]), the manifestation of the underworld (‘Sashka Zhegulyov’), and the metamorphoses of the man and the beast in ‘The Curse of the Beast’ [‘Proklyatie zverya’]. The author draws attention to the frequent use of the terms ‘bipedal’ and ‘quadrupedal’ in Andreev’s diaries and correspondence. Standing on all fours, his characters demonstrate various degrees of quadrupedalism — from momentary abandonment of bipedalism to deliberate and provocative violation of the bodily canon.