“Decrepit Century-Old Parks”: The Image of the Park in the Russian Poetry of the 19th Century and the Beginning of the 20th Century

The article considers two images typical of the Russian manor poetry of the 19th — early 20th centuries — the “alley” and the “thickets,” their originality, features, correlation and functions. The alley is one of the favorite images of Russian poetry. There are several reasons for this: the word “a...

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Main Author: Maria S. Akimova
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences 2020-03-01
Series:Studia Litterarum
Subjects:
Online Access:http://studlit.ru/images/Akimova.pdf
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spelling doaj-e53dd1e3fd78423895709c97b7bfa8152020-11-25T02:25:19ZengA.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of SciencesStudia Litterarum2500-42472541-85642020-03-015117819310.22455/2500-4247-2020-5-1-178-193“Decrepit Century-Old Parks”: The Image of the Park in the Russian Poetry of the 19th Century and the Beginning of the 20th Century Maria S. Akimova0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6051-3949A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of SciencesThe article considers two images typical of the Russian manor poetry of the 19th — early 20th centuries — the “alley” and the “thickets,” their originality, features, correlation and functions. The alley is one of the favorite images of Russian poetry. There are several reasons for this: the word “alley” is euphonious, showing the harmony of form and content; the alley is a manor reality, yet at the same time it is metaphysical: in the process of everyday life and historical conflicts the image of the alley undergoes changes, deepens (carries a whole complex of meanings: a place of meetings, reflections, memories, a symbol of the road of life, a reproduction of the world, etc.), begins to relate to the manor world as a whole, with its ambivalent characteristics. The alley in the park — whether it is French or English — appears as an instrument of creating harmony of the natural and the man-made, the victory of the human over chaos. The article shows that by the beginning of 20th century, the image of the overgrowth is more and more often used in poetry, and this image is different from the elegiac images of naturally neglected parks often used in poetry of the 19th century. This fact apparently reflects actual observations of poets (newspapers published notices of auctions; the desolation of estates is described in the magazines of the early 20th century, for example, in Capital and Estate, etc.), and the feeling of the coming Apocalypsis. By personifying the estate and its life, the alley in poetry also personifies the death of the estate through physical, “human” destruction or “inhuman,” natural overgrowth.http://studlit.ru/images/Akimova.pdfmanoralleygardenparkmanor poetryrussian poetry.
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Maria S. Akimova
spellingShingle Maria S. Akimova
“Decrepit Century-Old Parks”: The Image of the Park in the Russian Poetry of the 19th Century and the Beginning of the 20th Century
Studia Litterarum
manor
alley
garden
park
manor poetry
russian poetry.
author_facet Maria S. Akimova
author_sort Maria S. Akimova
title “Decrepit Century-Old Parks”: The Image of the Park in the Russian Poetry of the 19th Century and the Beginning of the 20th Century
title_short “Decrepit Century-Old Parks”: The Image of the Park in the Russian Poetry of the 19th Century and the Beginning of the 20th Century
title_full “Decrepit Century-Old Parks”: The Image of the Park in the Russian Poetry of the 19th Century and the Beginning of the 20th Century
title_fullStr “Decrepit Century-Old Parks”: The Image of the Park in the Russian Poetry of the 19th Century and the Beginning of the 20th Century
title_full_unstemmed “Decrepit Century-Old Parks”: The Image of the Park in the Russian Poetry of the 19th Century and the Beginning of the 20th Century
title_sort “decrepit century-old parks”: the image of the park in the russian poetry of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century
publisher A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences
series Studia Litterarum
issn 2500-4247
2541-8564
publishDate 2020-03-01
description The article considers two images typical of the Russian manor poetry of the 19th — early 20th centuries — the “alley” and the “thickets,” their originality, features, correlation and functions. The alley is one of the favorite images of Russian poetry. There are several reasons for this: the word “alley” is euphonious, showing the harmony of form and content; the alley is a manor reality, yet at the same time it is metaphysical: in the process of everyday life and historical conflicts the image of the alley undergoes changes, deepens (carries a whole complex of meanings: a place of meetings, reflections, memories, a symbol of the road of life, a reproduction of the world, etc.), begins to relate to the manor world as a whole, with its ambivalent characteristics. The alley in the park — whether it is French or English — appears as an instrument of creating harmony of the natural and the man-made, the victory of the human over chaos. The article shows that by the beginning of 20th century, the image of the overgrowth is more and more often used in poetry, and this image is different from the elegiac images of naturally neglected parks often used in poetry of the 19th century. This fact apparently reflects actual observations of poets (newspapers published notices of auctions; the desolation of estates is described in the magazines of the early 20th century, for example, in Capital and Estate, etc.), and the feeling of the coming Apocalypsis. By personifying the estate and its life, the alley in poetry also personifies the death of the estate through physical, “human” destruction or “inhuman,” natural overgrowth.
topic manor
alley
garden
park
manor poetry
russian poetry.
url http://studlit.ru/images/Akimova.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT mariasakimova decrepitcenturyoldparkstheimageoftheparkintherussianpoetryofthe19thcenturyandthebeginningofthe20thcentury
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