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Abstract: The article analyzes the representation of the image of Don Juan in the Russian poetry of the Silver Age through paratextual elements (titles, epigraphs, subtitles, dedications and notes) that function as an interpretive frame. The image of Don Juan in European culture combines two key motifs: this hero appears as a seducer of many women and as a mocker, mocking the dead and receiving deserved retribution. In the works of the writers of the 17th–19th centuries who turned to this image, attention is focused either on Don Juan’s amorousness or on the inevitability of retribution, depending on the author’s communicative intention. It has been found that the senior symbolists (K. Balmont, V. Bryusov) used the image of Don Juan as a cultural archetype, the passionate nature and legendary sinfulness of whom resonated with their ethically indifferent attitudes. Blok’s (young symbolists’) reflection on the eternal image is axiologically complicated: it already contains an ethical assessment of the “traitor”-hero, leveling his values, cultivated in previous symbolist images. The plot of Blok’s poem, condensed in its title, singles out the final pointe from the literary myth, and for the first time introduces the idea of inevitability of punishment for “promiscuity” in the symbolic text. The acmeists (N. Gumilyov, A. Akhmatova) introduce the idea of personal and meta-historical responsibility into the myth: in their works, the image of Don Juan is associated with the motif of punishment, redemption and struggle with fate. At the same time, the paratextual components, especially in the later works of Akhmatova, refer both to the area of classical texts about Don Juan and to the developments of this theme by the symbolists. In conclusion, it is proven that the proposed discourse analysis has revealed that the “frame text” performs the following essential functions: a) pragmatic – as a mechanism for tuning in to the horizon of reader expectations, b) cross-cultural – as an independent carrier of intertext; c) framing – as a semiotic frame that forms a semantic program for interpreting the eternal theme, allowing readers to compare the symbolist and acmeistic mythopoetics.

About the author(s) :

Anna V. Lamzina

Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (Moscow, Russia)

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6464-9675

Publication Timeline:

Date of receipt: 07.08.2025; date of publication: 29.12.2025

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