UDC

82ʼ14

Authors

Anna A. Semina
Lomonosov Moscow State University; Faculty of Philology, 1 Humanities Building, GSP-1, Leninskie gory, Moscow, 119991, Russian Federation;
e-mail: seminaaa@yandex.ru

Abstract

This paper analyses the motif of decay in Georgy Ivanov’s and Sergey Chudakov’s works. In addition, the author explains why and in what way Chudakov was influenced by Ivanov. The affinity of these poets’ worldviews is doubtless: in spite of living in the Soviet Union, Chudakov was virtually an internal emigrant, who had taken on the role of a superfluous man in Soviet society, while Ivanov was “the first white émigré poet”. The inescapable loneliness and limited opportunities for publication to a large extent contributed to the fragmentariness of their lyric expression and to their leaving the majority of their poems untitled. Chudakov’s poetics tends to apply the principle of collage, whereas the lines often represent a conglomeration of words linked either phonetically or by associations. “Decay” is interpreted by these poets as a leitmotif of the modern age, the time of hydrogen bombs and the revolt of the masses. In such conditions, the motifs of decay, fragility and sickliness become inherent concomitants of the lost Pushkinian Russia and of the person for whom it is still important. In Chudakov’s and Ivanov’s poems, Soviet discourse is an object of parody, which is achieved by means of colliding various clichés and slogans in a single utterance and making them meaningless. The feeling of love is very important for Ivanov’s and Chudakov’s heroes, as, on the one hand, it allows them to preserve their individuality and surmount the physical death, and on the other, it lets them feel the results of the total decay and experience the seamy side of life. In Chudakov’s poetry this motif takes on tragic overtones, as the hero fails to meet his heroine in a faceless crowd.

Keywords

Georgy Ivanov, Sergey Chudakov, motif of decay, fragmentariness

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