Journal archive

Abstract: The aim of the study is to analyze the creative-poetic strategies of David Burlyuk, one of the founders and active participants of the avant-garde processes of the early 20th century in Russia, and in particular to identify the nature of artistic transrational language reflected in his poetic practice, and to consider its imagerial-semantic functions. The main methods used in the research process include the cultural-historical and the structural-semantic methods, as well as the comparative method, which complement each other and make it possible to establish dialogic connections between the techniques of Burlyuk the poet and Burlyuk the painter. The result of the work consists in the analytical recognition of the kinship and common strategies of Burlyuk the poet and Burlyuk the painter in the process of the birth and creation of the diverse text of the novel art of the 20th century. It is shown that the peculiarity of Burlyuk’s poetic transrational language is that it has a character not verbal or linguistic (as, for example, in the works by V. Khlebnikov or A. Kruchenykh), but imagerial, visual, and picturesque. It is demonstrated that the complex nature of Burlyuk’s poetic transrational language is based on the combination of the views of a poet and a painter, and on the techniques of the verbal and the visual, the described and the visible. The comparative analysis has shown that Burlyuk’s imagerial transrational language is based on the reconstruction of holistic images formed by Burlyuk’s poetic constants-concepts, be it the sky, earth, moon, train, etc. Moreover, each of these concepts is created through a system of visible scenes, for example, in the stylistics of landscape – plow land on the heavenly field, or still life – object-related images of the sky in the form of a blue bottle with yellow wine, or moonlight. It has been established that a number of Burlyuk’s paintings were created in the same system of imagerial coordinates as his poems, that is, when the poetic text deciphers the picturesque transrational language on the canvas, and vice versa – when a visual series of Burlyuk’s paintings complements the poetic image of the verse. As a result of a comparative analysis of Burlyuk’s poetic and visual texts, it has been revealed through which figurative chains the artist combines the verbal and the visual, how he forms the picturesque transrational language of poetry, what features of visual imagery are reflected in his poetry, and what role the visible assumes in the creation of various types of transrational language. The study shows how masterfully Burlyuk realizes two different hypostases of artistic personality within himself, how organically he finds ways to implement transrational diffusion in the two immanently different arts – poetry and painting.

About the author(s) :

Olga V. Bogdanova

Russian Christian Humanitarian Academy named after Fedor Dostoevsky (Saint Petersburg, Russia)

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6007-7657

Publication Timeline:

Date of receipt: 24.07.2025; date of publication: 29.12.2025

References:

Alfonsov, A. N. (1999). Poeziya russkogo futurizma = Poetry of Russian Futurism. Poetry of Russian Futurism, 5–70. Saint Petersburg: Academic Project Publishing House.

Biryukov, S. E. (2024). David Burlyuk – mnogolikiy i edinyy = David Burliuk is many-faced and united. Neophilology, 10(1), 138–148. DOI: 10.20310/2587-6953-2024-10-1-138-148. EDN XGBLJF.

Bobrinskaya, E. A. (2000). Futurizm = Futurism. Moscow: Galart Publishing House, 192 p.

Bobrinskaya, E. A. (2006). Russkiy avangard: granitsy iskusstva = Russian avant-garde: The boundaries of art. Moscow: New Literary Review; State Institute of Art Studies, 294 p.

Bogdanova, O. V. (2025a). K voprosu o nasledii kul′tur (pervyy i vtoroy avangard, futurizm i kontseptualizm) = On the issue of cultural heritage (first and second avant-garde, futurism and conceptualism). Questions of cultural studies, 22, 5(244), 397–417. DOI: 10.33920/nik-01-2505-02. EDN QXFAFC.

Bogdanova, O. V. (2025b). Opyty vizual′noy poezii Vasiliya Kamenskogo = Vasily Kamensky’s experiments in visual poetry. Scientific dialogue, 14(5), 289–303.

Demenok, E. L. (2020). David Burlyuk. Instinkt esteticheskogo samosokhraneniya = David Burliuk. The instinct of aesthetic self-preservation. Moscow: Molodaya gvardiya Publishing House, 544 p.

Gold, M. (1944). David Burliuk: Artist-scholar, father of Russian futurism. New York: A. C. A. Gallery, 238 р.

Grebenyukova, N. (2007). David Burlyuk, «alkhimik Slova i Tsveta» = David Burliuk, “The alchemist of words and colors”. Literary arts, 2(20), 7–14.

Kalaushin, B. (1995). Burlyuk. Otets russkogo futurizma = Burliuk. The father of Russian futurism. Saint Petersburg: Apollon Publishing House, 800 p.

Kotlyar, E. R., Vershinina, A. M. (2017). Stil′ futurizm: put′ ot izobrazitel′nogo iskusstva v predmetnuyu sredu = Futurism style: The path from fine art to the subject environment. Tavrichesky Scientific Observer, 9(26), 109–114. EDN ZWUGJR.

Krasitsky, S. R. (2002). Poety Burlyuki = Burliuki Poets. Burlyuk D., Burlyuk N. Poems, 5–65. Saint Petersburg: Academic Project Publishing House.

Krusanov, A. V. (2010). Russkiy avangard: 1907–1932. Istoricheskiy obzor: v 3 t. T. 1. Boevoe desyatiletie. Kn. 2 = Russian avant-garde: 1907–1932. Historical overview, in 3 vols. Vol. 1. The fighting decade. Book 2. Moscow: New Literary Review, 1104 p.

Levinton, G. (2005). Antropologiya kul′tury. Vyp. 3 = Anthropology of culture. Issue 3. Moscow: Ministry of Industry and Science of Russia and the Russian Academy of Sciences, 414 p.

Orlitsky, Yu. B. (1995). Vizual′nyy komponent v sovremennoy russkoy poezii = The visual component in modern Russian poetry. New Literary Review, 16, 181–192. EDN QWNSAX.

Orlitsky, Yu. B. (2021). Nulevye, ili vakuumnye, teksty = Null or vacuum texts. Orlitsky Yu. B. Versification of modern Russian poetry, 566–573. 2^nd edition. Moscow: Yask Publishing House.

Shevchuk, V. G. (2014). Sintez iskusstv kak otlichitel′naya osobennost′ tvorchestva D. Burlyuka nachala XX veka = Synthesis of arts as a distinctive feature of D. Burliuk’s work at the beginning of the 20^th century. Scientific Notes of the Crimean Federal University named after V. I. Vernadsky. Series: Sociology. Pedagogy. Psychology, 1, 230–241.

Ternova, T. A. (2025). Universalii tsivilizatsii v literature russkogo avangarda pervoy treti XX veka = Universals of civilization in the literature of the Russian avant-garde of the first third of the 20^th century. Voronezh: Voronezh State University Publishing House, 190 p.