Ancient Rome in the Artistic Cognition of V. Bryusov

Abstract.

ANCIENT ROME IN V. BRYUSOV’S ARTISTIC COGNITION

Katerina Palii

Germanic Philology and Translation Department, National University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic”, Poltava, Ukraine.

Svitlana Astakhova

Germanic Philology and Translation Department, National University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic”, Poltava, Ukraine.

Abstract

Background: In modern literary criticism the researchers actively look through creative heritage of the writer, carry out search of new methods of comprehension of his creativity, and, especially, in studying of historical heritage. There are many unresolved issues that concern the modern literary critic. In this regard, there was a need to review the legacy of the writer, to analyze the lyrical features, to study the critical approaches of researchers and their analysis of the poetics of V. Bryusov, to determine historical and mythological characters and their modern interpretation.

Purpose: to observe the influence of the historical and literary context for creating images of the characters of the writer.

Results: In V. Bryusov’s creativity the big gallery of images of outstanding commanders, governors, historical figures round which geroiko-patriotic motives are concentrated (protection of the state, a public debt, courage and valor in fight against enemies, etc.). Representing destinies of people of those far times, V. Bryusov looked for analogies with modern to him an era, comparing surrounding reality to majestic images and events of Ancient Rome. Strong and strong-willed charac­ters from cultural history of Ancient Rome in art consciousness of V. Bryusov were opposed to every­thing to spiritually low and morally weak, public chaos and decline at a boundary of the XIX–XX cen­turies. In delineation of historical figures and known events V. Bryusov leaned not only on docu­mentary sources, but also on myths that was embodied in a number of mythological motives which purpose was a creation of an aura of heroics round this or that image (Anthony, Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Sula, etc.).

Discussion: V. Bryusov had a keen sense of history, therefore, in his lyrics, the concept of “past” is quite powerfully manifested, which is closely related to the concepts of “present” and “future”. The writer perceived historical processes through the prism of development and laws of world culture, in the organic connection of images, events and consequences. Therefore, his historical and socio-political motives were projected onto the present, on the search for humanistic ways of deve­loping society.

Keywords: historicism, lyrics, motive, image, tradition, anthology, poetics, innovation.

Vitae. Katerina Palii is a Candidate of Philology, Senior Lecturer of Germanic Philology and Translation Department at National University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic”. Her areas of interests include comparative linguistics, lexicology, history of the English language, cognitive linguistics, stylistics, literary criticism, foreign literature, history of literature.

Correspondence: e.paliy777@gmail.com

Vitae. Svitlana Astakhova is a Lecturer of Germanic Philology and Translation Department at National University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic”. Her areas of interests include lexico­logy, theoretical phonetics, stylistics, translation studies, foreign literature, German language teaching.

Correspondence: astahova.svitlana64@gmail.com

Article.

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