Title of the article:

“ANNIHILATING ALL THAT’S MADE / REDUCING TO A GREEN THOUGHT IN A GREEN SHADE”: ALLUSIONS FROM METAPHYSICAL POETS IN THE ENGLISH-RUSSIAN “ESTATE TEXT” OF THE 20^TH – 21^ST CENTURIES (M. GATTY, J. H. EWING, K. GRAHAME, F. H. BURNETT ET AL.)

Author(s):

Georgy A. Veligorsky 

Information about the author/authors

Georgy A. Veligorsky — PhD in Philology, A. M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya 25 а, 121069 Moscow, Russia.
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4316-4630
E-mail: screamer90@mail.ru

Section

Philological sciences

Year

2023

Volume

Vol. 69

Pages

pp. 257–267

Received

March 25, 2023

Approved after reviewing

April 19, 2023

Date of publication

September 25, 2023

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37816/2073-9567-2023-69-257-267

Index UDK

821.161.1.0+821.111.0

Index BBK

83.3(2Рос=Рус)+83.3(4Вел)

Acknowledgements

The study was carried out at the IWL RAS with support of the Russian Science Foundation grant no. 22-18-00051. Available at: https://rscf.ru/project/22-18-00051.

Abstract

The paper examines the influence of English metaphysical poets of the 16^th – 17^th centuries (A. Marvell, G. Vaughan, T. Traherne, J. Herbert) on the children’s “estate” novel of the Victorian era. The author conducts analysis for what purpose the children’s writers (M. Gatty, J. H. Ewing et al.) introduce the appropriate intertext into their novels and stories (to emphasize the unsteadiness of the world; to create “volatile” nostalgic images; depicting the estate as an earthly paradise, etc.). The study discusses the quotes they use (both as epigraphs and inclusions in the fabric of the narrative), as well as considers how these ideas were perceived by English “estate” authors of the 20^th century (K. Grahame, F. H. Burnett, Ph. Pearce, et al.). The paper pays special attention to the novel “Under the Salisbury Spire” by E. Marshall, the first novel for children, where a poet, a representative of the “metaphysical school”, is introduced as one of the main characters. The research also touches upon the reception of metaphysical works in Russian literature of the middle of the 20^th century, associated with the estate theme (works by A. A. Akhmatova, V. V. Nabokov, N. A. Zabolotsky, et al.).

Keywords

Metaphysical School, Estate, “Estateness”, G. Herbert, T. Traherne, A. Marvell, G. Vaughan.

References

1 Veligorskii, G. A. “‘Usadebnyi tekst’ i natsional’nyi kul’turnyi kod: russko-britanskie literaturnye sviazi XIX – nachala XXI v.” [“The ‘Estate Text’ and the National Cultural Code: Russian-British Literary Relations of the 19^th – Early 21^st Century]. Moscow, IWL RAS Publ., 2022. 416 p. (In Russian)

2 Dzhonson, S. Zhizneopisaniia proslavlennykh angliiskikh poetov [Biographies of famous English poets: in 3 Books], book 1, ed. by N. I. Reingol'd, T. A. Gurevich. Moscow, Ladomir: Nauka Publ., 2023. 904 p. (Series “Literaturnye pamiatniki” [“Literary monuments”]) (In Russian)

3 Karateeva, T. “‘Where past and future are gathered...’: ‘Poema bez geroia’ Akhmatovoi i “Chetyre kvarteta” Eliota” [“‘Where Past and Future Are Gathered...’: ‘Poem without a Hero’ by A. Akhmatova and ‘Four Quartets’ by T. S. Eliot”]. Vsemirnoe slovo, no. 14, 2001, pp. 91–94. (In Russian)

4 Krasavchenko, T. N. “Metafizicheskaia shkola” [“Metaphysical School”]. Literaturnaia entsiklopediia terminov i poniatii [Literary Encyclopedia of Terms and Concepts], ed. by A. N. Nikoliukin. Moscow, NPK “Intelvak” Publ., 2001, col. 531–532. (In Russian)

5 Carpenter, Humphrey. The Oxford Companion to Children’s Literature. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1984. 588 p. (In English)

6 Duncan, Joseph Ellis. The Revival of Metaphysical Poetry: The History of a Style. Hempstead (NY), Octagon Books Publ., 1969. 227 p. (In English)

7 Gottlieb, Sidney. “Under Salisbury Spire with the Fictional George Herbert.” George Herbert’s Pastoral: New Essays on the Poet and Priest. Cranbury (NJ), Associated University Press, 2010, pp. 255–273. (In English)

8 Grierson, Herbert John Clifford, editor. Metaphysical Lyrics and Poems of the Seventeenth Centuary Oxford, At the Clarendon Press, 1921. 244 p. (In English)

9 Seelig, Sharon Cadma. The Shadow of Eternity: Belief and Structure in Herbert, Vaughan, and Traherne. Lexington (KY), The University Press of Kentucky, 1981. 194 p. (In English)

10 Stewart, Stanley. The Enclosed Garden: The Tradition and the Image in Seventeenth-Century Poetry. Madison, Milwaukee (WI), London, The University of Wisconsin Press, 1966. 226 p. (In English)

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