Title of the article:

APOCALYPTICS OF REVOLUTION AND SELF-SACRIFICE IN THE POEM “LIEUTENANT SCHMIDT” BY B. L. PASTERNAK

Author(s):

Oksana A. Maltseva

Information about the author/authors

Oksana A. Maltseva — PhD in Philology, Associate Professor, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Alexandra Nevskogo St., 14, 236016 Kaliningrad, Russia. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3999-4431. E-mail: oa_malts@mail.ru

Section

Philological sciences

Year

2021

Volume

Vol. 62

Pages

pp. 202–210

Received

April 14, 2020

Date of publication

December 28, 2021

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37816/2073-9567-2021-62-202-210

Index UDK

821.161.1.0

Index BBK

83.3(2Рос=Рус)6

Abstract

The paper investigates the structure and significance of a mythopoetic component in the poem “Lieutenant Schmidt” (1926–1927) by B. Pasternak, revealing that mythopoetics contributes to the expression of the author’s Christian views on the events of the Russian revolution of 1905–1907. It depicts the Sevastopol Uprising as a kind of repetition of the tragic history of capture of Kyiv by Mongols-Tatars in the 13th century, as well as the represents bloody realities of the Great French Revolution of the late 18th century, since these events resulted from the fact that society neglected the spiritual and moral foundations of its existence. According to the author the images, arising in the subtext, the images of the Church of the Tithes destroyed in 1240, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789) and the October Manifesto (1905), not implemented in time, are the embodiments of such foundations. At the same time, the study emphasizes the significance of a philistine appearance of the “sleeping” fortress-city of Sevastopol. The author draws attention to the fact that the leitmotif of representing the spiritual sleep, lying and violence is the image of the rampant demonic force which eventually engulfed both warring parties. As she argues, there is, however, an antagonistic spiritual origin of this element in the poem — it is exactly in the image of Lieutenant Schmidt who embodies the idea of evangelical self-sacrifice in the era of violence and lack of spirituality. The paper analyzes the nature of internal conflict experienced by the hero, as well as the dynamics of the plot lines connected with him and highlights the role of biblical, historical and literary allusions. The author concludes that the work under study reveals characteristic features of a historical and mythological poem.

Keywords

B. Pasternak, poem, historical and literary allusions, myth, Christian ideas.

References

1 Vortman V., Vortman D. Vziatie Kieva mongolami [Capture of Kyiv by Mongols]. Voin, 2004, no 16, pp. 25–27. (In Russian)

2 Levin Iu. I. Zametki o “Leitenante Shmidte” [Notes on “Lieutenant Schmidt”]. In: Levin Iu. I. Izbrannye trudy. Poetika. Semiotika [Selected Works. Poetics. Semiotics]. Moscow, Shkola “Iazyki russkoi kul'tury” Publ., 1998, pp. 174–208. (In Russian)

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7 Sergeeva-Kliatis A. “Svoi sredi chuzhikh, chuzhoi sredi svoikh”: Revoliutsionnye poemy Pasternaka v literaturnoi kritike [“At home among strangers, a stranger among his own”: Pasternak’s revolutionary poems in literary criticism]. Voprosy literatury, 2012, no 5, pp. 437–463. (In Russian)

8 Fomenko I. V. Poeticheskoe tvorchestvo Borisa Pasternaka 10-kh–20-kh godov [Poetry of Boris Pasternak of the10th–20th years: PhD thesis]. Moscow, Izdatel'stvo MGU im. M. V. Lomonosova Publ., 1971. 20 p. (In Russian)

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