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Abstract: The article presents an analysis of the poem «July», included in the poetic book of Boris Pasternak “When It Clears Up” (1956–1959). The main purpose of this study is to identify the techniques and principles of the poetics of the enigmatic text, vividly implemented in it. The enigmatic text is a certain kind of language game undertaken in a fiction text, which is based on the technique of “estrangement”. Its task is to organize a special perception of an object or phenomenon, to create its “vision”, and not “recognition” (B. Shklovsky) and to present it in a fiction text as something strange, as if seen for the first time. The article establishes that, in terms of plot and composition, Pasternak’s poem has two parts and is organized with the help of morphological elements of such an enigmatic genre as riddle. The lyrical work is constructed as an allegorical text, in which July, the central object of artistic description, is simultaneously an object of initial concealment and subsequent discovery. The publication demonstrates that the plot of the lyrical work is constructed in such a way that in its first part Pasternak, describing July, actually hides the object of the description; the poet implements a creative strategy of evading its direct nomination, and, as a result, creates an artistic image that is far from simple recognition. The second part of the poem under analysis contains a clue, and the object of the lyrical description is directly named. Structural-semiotic, typological and functional approaches are used to analyze the poetic text. In the process of analysis, the main principles of enigmatic poetics are revealed, on which the author relied when creating the poem “July”. The principle of representation is expressed in Pasternak’s work by replacing the phenomenon being defined (July) with other objects (ghost, brownie, specter, etc.). The principle of personification of an abstract concept contributes to giving the images-substitutes sensually perceived traits and properties (“a ghost wanders”, “a brownie sneaks to the bed, tears the tablecloth off the table”, etc.). Substitutive nomination as a technique also takes part in the organization of Pasternak’s poem and, within the framework of the poetics of an enigmatic text, is designed to lead the reader along a false path that cannot lead to the solution. In addition, the article establishes that typologically the architectonics of the poem “July” is a kind of projection of a number of plot and compositional elements of the ancient tragedy, which, in turn, often contained enigma, as O. M. Freudenberg noted in her works. The poetics of the enigmatic text is not accidental in Pasternak’s work and has a systemic character, being an external, aesthetic expression of his deep worldview, in the center of which is the idea of existence in the form of a riddle, or an enigmatic text.

About the author(s) :

Igor S. Uryupin
Moscow State P edagogical University (Moscow, Russia).
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9080-9505

Publication Timeline:

Date of receipt: 28.07.2022; date of publication: 29.12.2022

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