“Animalistic Context” of Elias Canetti

Abstract

The article describes the originality of the artistic world, created by an Austrian writer, a Nobel Prize winner Elias Canetti (1905- 1994), the author of the unique "animal context". Animalism in the most general sense is a sentient human relationship to animals. The author of this article uses the term ‘anthropological animalistic’ because Canetti explores human nature through the prism of the animal world. The attitude of the writer towards animals is multifaceted: from sympathy to a special kind of reverence. The work uses an extensive literary material, which allows studying the animal images in the works of various genres. It is noted, that in Elias Canetti’s novels different manifestations of animalism are shown. On the one hand, Canetti’s story-telling about animals has the mythological character, animals’ figures can be attributed to the category of representative symbols. On the other hand, the writer appeals to the world of animals to illustrate the modern society. Special attention is paid to the research of transformation category, because a person's ability to transform, according to Canetti, is the main feature that distinguishes him/her from the animal.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n4s2p432