INTERPRETATION OF THE IMAGE OF GARDEN IN THE COLLECTION OF POEMS “EMBARCATION FOR CYTHERA” BY GEORGY IVANOV (1911)

Abstract

The article describes the interpretation of the image of garden, presented in the first collection of poems “Embarcation for Cythera” by Georgy Ivanov. It is proved that in the context of this artistic unity, the garden archetype is a cross-cutting symbol and acts as one of its axiological dominants. It is shown that the semantics and poetics of Georgy Ivanov’s image of a garden is very multifaceted and is motivated by the author’s dialogue with the literary and mythological ancient tradition, refracted through the influence on the poet of the works by Antoine Watteau, Konstantin Somov, Alexandre Benoîs, Paul-Marie Verlaine, Innokenty Annensky, Mikhail Kuzmin, Igor Severyanin, Fyodor Sologub. The article notes that the structure of the image of the garden, created in the debut collection of Georgy Ivanov, includes both the archetype of the Water, inherited from East Slavic mythology, and the apocalyptic symbol of the “bloody moon”. For the semantic filling of the image of garden the motif of languor (tenderness), often found in the lyrics of poets of the turn of the century (I.Annensky, F.Sologub, M.Kuzmin, Nikolai Gumilyov), is of great importance. The semantic evolution of the garden archetype represents the idea of the path, which is significant for the examined poet, which is key for the artistic consciousness of not only the authors of the Fin de Siècle, but also for Russian literature as a whole. Getting used to the time and space of different and at the same time somewhat similar “gardens”, Georgy Ivanov outlines the vector of his own creative development, predicts the movement towards the collection “Gardens”. He outlines the concept of “wanderings” through different mythologies and cultures, which is relevant both for the aesthetics of Russian symbolists and acmeists.