RAISED “TAMBOURINE”: OLD RUSSIA AND THE AVANT-GARDE IN THE V. SOSNORA’S POEM FEAST OF VLADIMIR (1959)

Category: Hermeneutics of Old Russian Literature: Issue 23
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Author: Tatiana I. Kovaleva
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Tatiana I. Kovaleva, PhD in Philology, Researcher, Institute of Philology of the Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Nikolaeva St., 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 St., 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/ICZGCE
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Kovaleva T.I., and Loshchilov, I.E. “Raised ‘Tambourine’: Old Russia and the Avant-garde in the V. Sosnora’s Poem ‘Feast of Vladimir’ (1959).” Germenevtika drevnerusskoi literatury [Hermeneutics of Old Russian Literature]. Issue 23. Ed.-in-chief O.A. Tufanova. Moscow, IWL RAS Publ., 2024, pp. 613–632. (In Russian) https://doi.org/10.22455/HORL.1607-6192-2024-23-613-632 
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22455/HORL.1607-6192-2024-23-613-632
UDC: 821.161.1.0
Keywords: Russian literature, poetry of the 20th century, V. Sosnora, poem Feast of Vladimir, poetics, Old Russian tradition, avant-garde.

Abstract

The article analyzes two important aspects for understanding Victor Sosnora’s poem Feast of Vladimir (1959). The aspects, misunderstood by the first critics, are the role of a minus-reception (answer of Prince Vladimir at the feast to the squad hidden by default) and a refrain (a call to beat the tambourine accompanying the feast). Sosnora uses allusions and associations and refers the reader, if he accepts the rules of poe’s game, to the works in the traditions of Old Russia and the avant-garde. The role of the minus-reception is explained in the context of the story about Vladimir’s feast from The Russian Primary Chronicle taken as the basis for the poem. The password “buben” (“tambourine”) repeated nine times refers to the name of Bozhidar’s poetry collection “Byben” (“Tambourine”) and, in general, to the elements of the Russian avant-garde of the 1910s, when the futurists experienced the death of Bozhidar, who committed suicide at the age of twenty. Sosnora demonstrates in the poems of the Horsemen the idea of poetry as resurrection magic dating back to the early avant-garde. The poet “revives” dead writings and heroes of early history, bringing them closer to modernity. Along the way, however, poetics and avant-garde poets of the “first call” are resurrected: only with their “assistance” the resurrection of Old Russia is possible. 

 

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