Il fiume Potudan’ di Andrej Platonov: l’impotenza come momento di passaggio

Massimo Tria

2023-01-01

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Abstract

The Soviet writer Andrej Platonov (1899-1951) is characterised by a prose imbued with dense philosophical meditations and a form that draws on the traditions of fairy tales and myths, yet within the framework of a poetic approach that aims to reflect on Soviet contemporaneity. Inspired by original philosophers such as Nikolai Fёdorov, Platonov investigates man's aspiration for happiness, both psychological and physical, in highly dramatic tones. Starting from an ascetic conception of sexuality that marks his beginnings in the spirit of socialist sublimation, he questions the weight of carnal instincts and the nullification of sex in the name of higher spiritual principles, going so far as to write that there is an ‘imperialism of the lower parts’ in man that must be chastised. The 1937 short story ‘The Potudan’ River' is one of the ripest fruits of these reflections. The protagonist suffers from a transient but devastating impotence due to an imbalance between physical forces and mental energies that do not live in harmony in his body. This inability to unite in a carnal sense with his wife brings him to the brink of annihilation. The essay analyses the dynamics by which, in the story in question, Platonov arrives at a partial acceptance of sexuality and a new phase in his artistic vision, which in part contradicts the Fёdorovian inspiration.