Victor Sosnora’s Poem 1111: from Old Russian Tradition to Avant-garde

Category: Hermeneutics of Old Russian Literature: Issue 22
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Author: Tatiana I. Kovaleva
Information about the author:

Tatiana I. Kovaleva, PhD in Philology, Researcher, Institute of Philology of the Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Nikolaeva 8, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia.

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7165-3186

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 
Author 2: Igor E. Loshchilov
Information about the author 2: Igor E. Loshchilov, PhD in Philology, Leading Research Fellow, Institute of Philology of the Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Nikolaeva 8, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3642-2590 E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 
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https://elibrary.ru/RFQIPF
For citation:

Kovaleva, T.I., Loshchilov, I.E. “Victor Sosnora’s Poem ‘1111:’ from Old Russian Tradition to Avant-garde.” Germenevtika drevnerusskoi literatury [Hermeneutics of Old Russian Literature]. Issue 22. Ed.-in-chief O.A. Tufanova. Moscow, IWL RAS Publ., 2023, pp. 581–599. (In Russian) https://doi.org/10.22455/HORL.1607-6192-2023-22-581-599 
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22455/HORL.1607-6192-2023-22-581-599
UDC: 821.161.1.0
Keywords: Russian literature, poetry of the 20th century, V. Sosnora, poem 1111, poetics, Old Russian tradition, avant-garde.
Date of publication: 20.09.2023

Abstract:

The article examines the poem 1111 (1959) by Victor Sosnora. The poem is an illustrative example in the rethinking of Old Russian tradition in the work of Modern Times. Based on the story of The Russian Primary Chronicle, the poet includes the events of the past in a modern historical context. He does this using allusions and anachronisms, associative echoes with other Old Russian works (The Sermon by Vladimir Monomakh, The Tale of Igor’s Campaign) and with authors of the 19th–20th centuries (L. Trefolev, V. Mayakovsky, V. Khlebnikov, N. Zabolotsky). Turning to the old source becomes an avant-garde gesture for the “initiates” (“futurists” of the first call) and, at the same time, a “pass” to the thaw press (military history has always been under the auspices of Soviet officialdom). The chronicle plot is told to the reader so sophisticatedly that different levels of text organization from its graphic design (“ladder”), and lexical approximations to compound, exquisitely inaccurate or defiantly accurate rhymes force the reader to recall the textbook works Hilea by futurists Mayakovsky and Khlebnikov.

REFERENCES

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