PETERSBURG OF IVAN ELAGIN
DOI: 10.23951/1609-624X-2020-3-45-52
Introduction. The article considers the image of St. Petersburg in the lyrics of Ivan Elagin, one of the prominent representatives of the second wave of emigration. The objectives of the study are: to trace the development of the image in its evolution, to fix the “common places” of St. Petersburg poetics, at the same time to note the author’s personal contribution to the development of the theme in conditions of emigration. Material and methods. The research methodology involves the interpretation of poetic texts based on theoretical and literary concepts (acmeism, literary tradition, poetry of the diaspora and the metropolis, etc.). Results and discussion. The image of St. Petersburg in the literature of the Russian abroad has repeatedly become the subject of scientific research, but the lyrics of Ivan Elagin have not yet attracted the close attention of literary scholars in interpreting the theme of St. Petersburg from acmeistic positions. We considered a number of his poems as a vivid example of following the precepts of acmeism in conditions of emigration, although the avant-garde element is no less important in the lyrics of Elagin. But in the image of the city on the Neva, the poet deliberately focuses on the poetics of acmeism, as evidenced by numerous allusions and thematic exchanges with senior acmeists – N. Gumilev, A. Akhmatova, O. Mandelstam. Conclusion. The lyrical embodiment of the image of St. Petersburg by Ivan Elagin is dictated by his acmeistic orientation and the desire to write his name in a line of his own poetic acmeist teachers. St. Petersburg of Ivan Elagin actualizes the general settings for the “St. Petersburg text”, but, in addition, demonstrates the emigrant specificity in interpreting the image of Northern Palmyra. The dominant feature of the image is its mortality, striving for “beyond”, the reflection in it of existential longing and nostalgia – the eternal “companions” of the exiled poet.
Keywords: Ivan Elagin, poetry of Russian emigration of the second wave, “St. Petersburg text”, allusion, acmeistic traditions, the theme of death
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Issue: 3, 2020
Series of issue: Issue 3
Rubric: TOPICAL ISSUES OF LITERARY CRITICISM
Pages: 45 — 52
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