About the author:
Ekaterina V. Kuznetsova (Moscow, Russia), PhD in Philology, Research Fellow, A.M. Gorky Institute of World literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya 25 а, 121069 Moscow, Russia.
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6045-2162
E-mail:
Acknowledgements:
The research was carried out at the Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences with the financial support of the Russian Science Foundation (project No. 17-18-01410-P “Academic Bunin. Source studies, textology, methodology”).
Abstract:
Based on the analysis of two “Loneliness” poems united by a common theme, the paper considers two main ways Bunin went to create the prosaism effect in his poetry: one is preserving the lyrical content while transforming the lyrical form; another is eliminating the lyrical content while preserving the lyrical form. In the first case, the level of intimacy and the confession feeling are increased, the content of the poem being the directly expressed feelings and experiences of the author, his spiritual experience. The form of the poem in this case is largely based on negative techniques (Yuri Lotman): weakening of rhythm and rhyme, simplicity of lexical means, “unadorned” speech, lack of tropes. In the second case it is vice versa: the rich, traditionally decorated poetic form is preserved, but pathetic lyricism and subjective point of view on the world are almost completely eliminated. Bunin had different reasons for such poetic experiments. On the one hand, it is the unity of the artistic world of the author who wrote both poetry and prose. On the other hand, it is a general tendency in modernist literature to blur the boundaries between genres and types of literature.