The poetics of paired texts in the lyrics of Yu. V. Zhadovskaya

Zenevich Ekaterina Vasilievna ORCID: 0009-0000-9118-5722 Head of the Editorial Office, Postgraduate (Pushkin Institute of the Russian Language); Institute of Theoretical and Applied Electrodynamics of the Russian Academy of Sciences 125412, Russia, Moscow, Izhorskaya str., 13, p. 6 pasek1980@mail.ru Other publications by this author

Introduction

One of the general patterns of the lyrics of the first half of the XIX century is intertextuality as a method of forming the content of the context of works of art. The peculiarity of the manifestation of intertextuality in the individual author's picture of the world is of particular interest to literary critics, since any understanding of the text "is the correlation of this text with other texts" ^{[1, pp. 363-364]}.

In this context, the work of Yulia Valerianovna Zhadovskaya (1824-1883) attracts attention. One of the characteristic features of Y.V. Zhadovskaya's poetry is the abundance of textual repetitions: each theme is duplicated several times in different variations, while retaining all its main distinctive features. For example, the predominant time of day in the lyrics of Y.V. Zhadovskaya is evening, smoothly flowing into the traditional romantic night. An evening in the poetess's artistic world is a transitional period when you can escape from the hustle and bustle of the world and "fully focus on feelings and sensations" ^{[2, p. 48]}. The description of the evening landscape is almost always based on the same model: "transparent evening sky – lighting stars – coming silence – peace and tranquility." Such a descriptive model is present in the poems "Evening Thought", "Evening", "Evening Thoughts", "Boring evening", "Evening Charms", "Evening", "Evening Sky", "Evening and Morning".

Another example of thematic repetitions in the artistic world of Y.V. Zhadovskaya is the lyrical situation of communion with God and spiritual self-improvement through prayer. Such thematic repetition is most clearly manifested in poetic prayers, "the key ideas of which are overcoming sin and sacrifice" ^{[3, p. 245]}. Twelve poetic texts have been written in the genre of poetic prayer by Y.V. Zhadovskaya ^[3].

We have discovered such a feature of Zhadovskaya's creative method as double thematic repetition: some poems form semantic pairs, including at the level of the title.

In the well-known studies devoted to the work of Yu.V. Zhadovskaya, the phenomenon of the existence of paired texts has not been considered.

The purpose of the work is to analyze the phenomenon of "paired" texts as one of the ways to form an individual author's picture of the world by Yu.V. Zhadovskaya.

The phenomenon of paired texts is considered on the example of lyrical microcycles "Pretense" – "Necessary pretense", "You will soon forget me ..." – "You will not forget me soon...", "Duma" – "To the Child (Duma)", "Cloud" – "Approaching cloud", "Grandmother's Garden" – "Here I am, here in the fragrant garden ...", "The one I loved" – "The voice from the grave".

The main part

Thematic repetitions literally permeate the lyrics of Y.V. Zhadovskaya. The whole complex of lyrical texts seems to the reader to consist of analogies and parallels. This creative method of poetic work is similar to the method of F.I. Tyutchev's work. Y.V. Zhadovskaya, like F.I. Tyutchev, "does not have a single statement, perhaps not even a single significant verse, which would not be surrounded by a kindred atmosphere of other statements and poems belonging to the same thematic nest" ^{[4, p. 16]}. L.V. Pumpyansky calls such a method "parallelistic" ^[4], which together forms a thematic "nest" or cycle.

The poetess uses a parallelistic method in compiling the second collection of poems, published in 1858 ^[5]. The collection has a three-part composition and is a transitional form from a collection of poems to a book of poetry ^[6]. The first part is a reprint of selected poems from the first collection ^[7]. The lyrical plot of this part is the story of the emotional turmoil of the lyrical heroine. The composition of the second part of the collection repeats the composition of the first part. However, the lyrical plot of the second part is based on the reflection of these same mental shocks after some time. The third part sums up the life of the lyrical heroine.

The poetic texts of the first and second parts of the second collection of poems by Y.V. Zhadovskaya represent a kind of dialogue. Here we can talk about the phenomenon of "dialogicity" ^[1] of texts, when one work of fiction can be represented as a replica of a certain dialogue, "the style of which is determined by its relationship with other replicas of this dialogue (in general, the conversation)" ^{[1, p. 87]}. And in this regard, the intertextuality of a pair of texts is a kind of "intertextual space common to the participants of the dialogue" ^[1].

This intertextual dialogue is fixed, first of all, at the level of the titles of poetic texts, as well as at the semantic level. Nevertheless, it is necessary to clarify in more detail on what basis pairs of texts are combined into a microcycle.

Firstly, the basis for separating a pair is the presence of contextual connections, or intertextuality. Contextual connections are a phenomenon that can arise both at the will of the author and in addition to the author's will. M.N. Darwin notes that both cycles—contexts organized by the author ("author's") and not isolated by the author himself, but existing in the reader's mind ("editorial", "reader's") ^[8]. V.E. Khalizev identifies three types of context ^{[9, pp. 21-22]}: author's (related to the writer's own outlook), non-author's (related to analogies observed in various works of different writers) and the context of perception (related to the reader's perception). We are interested in the latter – the reader's perception context.

It is important to emphasize that the pairs of texts studied by us were not created by Yu.V. Zhadovskaya specifically, they arose as a "poetic unity" ^{[8, p. 21]} only in the reader's perception.

Secondly, we start from a broad understanding of the literary cycle as a group of related literary works created by one or more authors. In this sense, we will call pairs small non-author cycles, or microcycles^[8]. The main and main feature of such microcycles can be considered the "phenomenon of internal dialogicity" ^{[1, p. 97]}, when the lyrical plot of one poetic text "enters into a literary dialogue" with the lyrical plot of another poetic text.

The tendency to combine poems into a microcycle consisting of a poetic pair arose at the very beginning of Yu.V. Zhadovskaya's creative career. The poetess's poetic debut ^[10] was the publication of two poems "The Best Pearl is hidden" ^{[7, p. 5]} and "Many drops of light" ^{[7, p. 64]} in the Moskvityanin magazine in 1843.

To some extent, both poems can be considered as a kind of dilogy that makes up a poetic declaration. The poetess considered "Bright living inspiration" to be a prerequisite for true creativity. In genuine art, in her opinion, feeling and "holy thought" merge ^{[7, p. 5]}, and the poet (creator) is the chosen one of heaven. It is noteworthy that this pair of texts is the compositional frame of the first lifetime collection of poems ^[7]: "The best pearl lurks" is a kind of prologue, and "Many drops of light ..." is the epilogue of the collection. The motive of being chosen in the first collection of poems becomes the main motive revealing the image of the lyrical heroine.

Subsequently, such a poetic technique as combining texts into a microcycle was repeatedly used by Yu.V. Zhadovskaya. The basis for pairing texts into a microcycle can be roll calls in the title, variations of one theme, as well as the development of the lyrical plot of one poem in the future ("syntactic cycle" ^[11]).

So, in the artistic world of Y.V. Zhadovskaya, the combination of texts into pairs occurs on the basis of the following signs: the identity of titles according to synonymic and antonymic principles, variations of a common theme, as well as the actual intertextual dialogue.

The identity of the titles of the microcycle "Duma" ^{[5, p. 58]} – "To the Child (Duma)" ^{[5, p. 29]} is determined by the presence of a genre title (duma). The theme of childhood as a carefree human existence becomes an important element of the poetic world order. In both poems there is an angelic image of a child with an innocent soul, who has not yet known life and is not disappointed in people. The carelessness and freedom of a child playing or sleeping gives rise to sad thoughts in the lyrical heroine about his future unenviable fate:

I look at you with sad concern,

And I wish you to guess your fate, my friend:

What has the Creator defined for you in the world? ^{[5, p. 29]}

The tragic attitude of the lyrical heroine is manifested in prophetic predictions of mental anguish and torment that await the child when growing up and encountering the outside world – "light". In the center of the poem "To the Child (Duma)" is the theme of love as "holy pleasure" [ibid.]. It is thanks to this feeling that an adult who has learned suffering and deprivation can feel the carelessness and joy that he had in childhood.

The finale of the poem is ambiguously directed: on the one hand, the prediction of a difficult life path is dedicated to a sleeping child, on the other hand, it is addressed to the lyrical heroine herself, who is looking for her own peace of mind.

In the poem "Duma", the metaphor of love feelings as a "delectable poison" ^{[5, p. 59]} introduces a new understanding of the theme of love. Here, the love of an inexperienced and hot heart collides with the indifference of people and their cruelty. The world order of adult life is based on the dichotomy of the cruel world and the mental suffering of an adult child. At the end of the poem there are philosophical reflections on fate and the choice of a life path. The first path is the path of suffering and loneliness. The second path is the path of calculation, wealth and callousness.

The theme of mental suffering and the predestination of human fate in the first Duma is developed in the second. The lyrical plot of the couple's first poem emphasizes the predestination of the tragic fate of a person at his birth. In the second poem, a person is given a moral choice: either to live with true feelings and suffer, or to give up "heartbreak" and be "happy" ^{[5, p.60]}. The microcycle is united by the motif of disharmony between the child's maturing consciousness and the surrounding world.

One example of combining texts based on the thematic variations contained in them, fixed including at the title level, can be the microcycle "Pretense" ^{[7, p. 11]} – "Necessary pretense" ^{[5, p. 46]}. The lyrical plot ^{[12, p. 90]} of the first poem develops and deepens in the second poem. The lyrical heroine of "Pretense" does not find sympathy and participation in anyone, hides her thoughts and lofty aspirations from people in order to avoid ridicule and misunderstanding, adjusts to the general tone of thoughtless fun, maintains an "insignificant conversation", depicts "full attention", laughs, "while hot tears are ready from the eyes // to roll" ("Pretense") ^{[7, p. 11]}. New details appear in the lyrical plot of "Necessary Pretense": here the lyrical heroine suffers not only from the state of deceiving others, but, above all, from deceiving herself: she is forced to play a role that contradicts her own moral principles: "If everything changes me in everything, // I see vulgarity and deception everywhere? ... // Oh. how difficult, sad and insulting // I have to hide all the pain of heart wounds!" ^{[5, p. 46]}. The first lyrical text outlines the main problem – the confrontation between the "secular" and the "spiritual". In the second text, this problem becomes the object of reflection of the lyrical heroine.

This microcycle demonstrates the unification of poems based on the identity of the theme. The next microcycle is based on antinomy in revealing the theme of the memory of the beloved. A direct reference to the poem "You will soon forget me..." ^{[7, p. 17]}, is the poem "You will not forget me soon..." ^{[5, p. 79]}. In the center of the first poem is the parting with her lover as the most difficult ordeal in the heroine's life, a terrible shock that changed everything in her life: "I am quietly and sadly accomplishing // Without joys, a life path; // And how I love and suffer - // The grave alone will know!" ^{[7, p. 17]}. In the second text, the lyrical heroine rethinks her love in a new way, rising above pain and disappointment, considers it as a link in the chain of the universe: "No, we did not come together for nothing // On the broad path of being..." ^{[5, p. 79]}. With her love, the lyrical heroine managed to bring human existence closer to finding harmony. This microcycle expresses "different sides of the same idea" ^{[13, p. 18.]}, which indicates the conscious use of this literary technique by Yu.V. Zhadovskaya.

Based on variations of the general theme, it is possible to combine pairs of texts "Approaching cloud" ^{[7, p. 6]} – "Cloud" ^{[5, p. 121]}. The image of an impending black cloud as a harbinger of a storm is traditional for romantics. The lyrical heroine of the poem "The Approaching Cloud" watches the approach of the elements. It is at this moment that she feels free and uplifted. The approaching misfortune pleases the heroine:

It's rumbling in the distance, and a cloud is approaching,

It rushes solemnly and slowly…

How nice! Before the greatness of the storm

My soul's anxiety subsides. ^{[7, p. 6]}

This contrast of the image symbolizes the highest degree of tension, when the impending natural destruction exposes the whole range of emotional experiences of conflicting feelings.

The destruction and damage caused by the storm are described in the second text of the microcycle. The image of a fatal thunderstorm in the poem is associated with the motive of death "She will take away many victims greedily / Many of her strength will not leave" ^{[5, p.121]}. In the artistic system of Y.V. Zhadovskaya, the motif of death is closely intertwined with the motif of rebirth and new life. It is total destruction and death that are the starting point of a new worldview in which peace and grace appear. In the finale of the poem, an image of "God's world" appears, where a person who has survived a storm is given the will to choose a life path.

In the reader's perception of the microcycle "Approaching Cloud" ^{[7, p. 6]} – "Cloud" ^{[5, p. 121]}, a single lyrical plot appears, the microthemes of which contain a description of the beginning of the storm, the rampant elements and its consequences.

In general, the theme of nature is one of the central themes in the lyrics of Y.V. Zhadovskaya. The expression of various feelings and emotions is complemented by the image of natural changes. In many poems containing images of nature, there is a syntactic parallelism.

For example, the image of the garden as the embodiment of paradise on earth serves as an illustration of a happy love date of the characters. The lyrical plot of the microcycle "Grandmother's Garden" ^{[7, p. 60]} – "Here I am, here in the fragrant garden" ^{[5, p. 115]} – the expectation of the upcoming meeting of lovers and memories of such meetings. In both texts, a lyrical male character appears "How happy, how glad / I was then" ^{[7, p. 60]}, "Here I am, here in the fragrant garden, / Looking forward to a sweet one" ^{[5, p. 115]}. It is important to emphasize that in this pair of texts there is a role-playing character of the lyrical "I". Such a convention helps to convey a special feeling of love between a man and a woman, when each of the lovers perceives himself as one with his chosen one. Sentimental romantic patterns "rose and nightingale", "forget-me-not and stars", "daisy and moth", "jasmine and firefly", "lily and moon" emphasize the integrity and harmony of the romantic picture of the world.

I will give another interesting example of a pair of texts where the image of the characters is role–playing, and the lyrical plot of the first poem develops in the second: "The one I loved" ^{[10, p. 114]} - "The Voice from the grave" ^{[14, p. 68]}. Both works represent not only semantic, but also rhythmic unity (three-stop chorus, cross-rhyming system).

The poem "The one I loved ..." ^{[7, p. 114]} is published in the complete works. This is a monologue of a girl addressed to a deceased lover, full of longing and suffering. Her lover is dead, but she doesn't stop thinking about him: "He's dreaming about something // In that deep sleep? // His thought aspires, / / Maybe to me?.." ^{[7, p. 114]}. Her love, according to the worldview of Yu.V. Zhadovskaya, is unique and eternal; death is perceived not as the final parting of two loving hearts, but as a dream that leaves hope for the union of lovers.

The second poem, "A Voice from the Grave" ^{[14, p. 68]}, preserved only in the archive, is an answer to the first, which is indicated by the poetess herself, introducing the subtitle "The answer to the poems "The one she loved"" ^{[14, p. 68]}. This is a monologue of a deceased lover addressed to a beloved who remained on earth: "Believe me, in your soul I // Read everything now // And, in the grave of smoldering, // I experience life" ^{[14, p. 68]}. This microcycle allows the poetess to visually express her perception of death and love: with physical death, true love does not end, as the soul continues to live. Note that this form of constructing a poem on behalf of the deceased, addressing those who remained on earth, is traditional for Russian poetry of the XIX century – it is used, for example, in V.A. Zhukovsky's poems "A Voice from the Other World" ^{[15, p. 265]}, 1815, M.Y. Lermontov's "The Love of a Dead Man" ^{[16, p. 180]}. The microcycle uses the syntactic technique of contextual unification.

Conclusion

So, Zhadovskaya's paired poetic texts express a single figurative system, complementing and strengthening it. Microcycles consisting of plot analogies, thematic repetitions and parallels are of particular interest not only as a way of expressing the author's view of the world, but also as a way of organizing the reader's perception. They are the key to understanding the dialectical method of cognition of the world in the poetess's lyrics.

The desire for cyclization is one of the main, but little-studied features of Y.V. Zhadovskaya's lyrics. And the study of cyclization on the example of a specific author's artistic system deserves attention as a natural phenomenon of the development of lyrical cyclization in the literary process of the second third of the XIX century.