Title of the article:

THE TRAGIC IRONY IN THE “FOLDERS” OF I. F. ANNENSKY

Author(s):

Yulia V. Shevchuk

Information about the author/authors

Yulia V. Shevchuk ― DSc in Philology, Leading Researcher, A. M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaia St., 25 a, 121069 Moscow, Russia. E-mail: julyshevchuk@yandex.ru

Section

Philological sciences

Year

2019

Volume

Vol. 54

Pages

pp. 242–256

Received

March 12, 2019

Date of publication

December 28, 2019

Index UDK

821.161.1

Index BBK

83.3(2Рос=Рус)6

Abstract

The second part of the “Cypress casket” by Annensky refers to the content of the author`s consciousness, but the issues of the cycle “Folders” are much wider than the circle of creativity problems. The poet explores subconscious depths of his contemporary`s personality, the tragedy of whose existence is linked with a complex interaction of two conflicting forces in  human soul ― a conscious immersion in culture and subconscious attraction to the natural, forbidden, not-made-by-hands. Tragic irony becomes the most important Annensky`s way of poetic vision, debunking gender stereotypes and the “absolutes” of art. By reducing thought, the lyrical “Me” tries to feel the world beyond itself ― that opposes its inner being in reality ― the world of women (“romantic Folder”, “Two sails”), the rhythm of nature (“Counterfeiting”), creative behavior of another poet and his reader (“to Another”, “Him and me”). “Folders” are associated with the context of the poet's work (critical works and drama) and are secretly presenting well-known and peripheral images of the world literature: Andromache (“Iliad” by Homer, “Aeneid” by Virgil), Gretchen (“Faust” by Goethe), Sappho of Stolz (“Anna Karenina” by Tolstoy), Plyushkin (“Dead souls” by Gogol),Goliadkin (“The Double” by Dostoyevsky). The central part of the “Cypress casket”`s composition is the most tragic and ironic work of the poet. The very possibility of catharsis looks problematic in the cycle.

Keywords

lyrics of I. F. Annensky, “Cypress casket”, “Folders”.

References

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