“Russian poetry mechanism” in the context of historical poetics

The article is a detailed commentary on the expression “Russian poetry mechanism” used by A.S. Pushkin in “Eugene Onegin”. Basing on works of predecessors (V.S. Baevsky, S.I. Panov), the author denotes the genesis and semantics of this expression in the context of historical poetics. The field of its application in Russian literature of the early 19th century — lyrical and dramatic work — is revealed. As one of the first examples where the expression appears, a poem by Euthymius Chudovsky (17th century) is given. The formation of the metaphor of a clock as a model of the world’s structure, and then of God as a great watchmaker, in the Western European tradition is dated by this period. On the basis of texts by Euthymius Chudovsky and Simeon Polotsky, it is concluded that works of Moscow scribes can be included in the context of pan-European discussions of this period. Antique sources of the metaphor in question are indicated on the material of translations-transcriptions by А. Kantemir and V. Trediakovsky. In conclusion, the author connects the formation and development of the metaphor of creativity as a “mechanism” with a complex process of developing a new type of author’s identity in Russian literature of the 17th–18th centuries. In the literary culture of the New Age, the writer arranges the words at his own discretion, creating the work as a complex verbal mechanism, the work of which depends only on the inventiveness of the author.

Abstract licence: CC BY

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