GEORGY SHENGELI: CULTURAL ISOLATION AS A POETIC STRATEGY
DOI: 10.23951/1609-624X-2022-6-145-155
Introduction. This article examines cultural isolation as a form of poetic behavior by Georgy Shengeli, one of the representatives of “Moscow Acmeism” of the first half of the 20th century, consciously chosen by the poet as a reaction to the ideological pressure of the Soviet state in the field of literary policy. The purpose is to trace the formation of this author’s strategy, its causes and reflection in the poet’s lyrics. Material and methods. The methodology of research assumes a literary interpretation of lyrical texts based on the aesthetics and poetics of Acmeism, using the method of intertextual analysis and comparative method of analysis of the poetic text, involving historical commentary. Results and discussion. Georgy Shengeli’s lyrics have rarely attracted the attention of literary critics for the analysis of their poetics; our study is designed to consider the influence of Acmeism on the poetic fabric of texts from different periods of the author’s work, to discover the similarity of the aesthetic and outlook of the poet to the emigrant lyrics, the main theme of which was nostalgia, caused by the forced cultural isolation. Conclusion. Georgy Shengeli’s lyrics fully reflect the strategy of cultural isolation chosen by the poet as the only possible option for creative existence at a time of active promotion of official Soviet art. The poet regarded his “departure” into the world of Culture as a mission for its preservation, voluntarily undertaken as an heir to the Silver Age of Russian poetry. Shengeli, who knew the first generation of great names of the early 20th century, considered as his duty to continue his work as a younger and one of the last in the cohort of poets who did not leave their homeland in the throes of its tragic trials. His experience of forced “retreat into the literary underground” was akin to the emigrant experience of refugee poets resulting from the separation from their native cultural soil. The obvious affinity is largely explained by the commonality of the “cultural womb” of Acmeism, which nurtured Shengeli and his fellow emigrants. The idea of preserving the traditions of Russian literature in the Word unites the poets who live on different sides of the border, and once again proves the vagueness of these borders for a united great Russian culture.
Keywords: Georgy Shengeli, “Moscow acmeism”, cultural isolation, acmeist traditions, “internal emigration”
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Issue: 6, 2022
Series of issue: Issue 6
Rubric: LITERARY STUDIES
Pages: 145 — 155
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