Preview

Nauchnyi dialog

Advanced search

Why Did the Canary Die? (Sergei Yesenin about Nikolai Klyuev)

https://doi.org/10.24224/2227-1295-2020-12-151-162

Abstract

The article is devoted to the problem of interpretation of the well-known Yesenin lines about N. A. Klyuev in the poem “In the Caucasus”. In literary criticism, the point of view has been established, according to which the eleventh verse of the poem by S. A. Yesenin contains a well-known “epigrammatic definition” expressing the extremely sharp “negative attitude” of the poet towards his former mentor. The systemic analysis of Yesenin’s poetic definitions of Klyuev, “gentle apostle” (“O muse, my flexible friend...”, 1917) and “Ladoga deacon” (“In the Caucasus”, 1924) in the historical and literary context, made it possible to find their close semantic correlation and identify the lines about Klyuev in the poem “In the Caucasus” as the author’s self-irony, expressed in the form of a comic demotion of his former teacher. It is proved that in the poem “In the Caucasus”, ironically putting himself in the place of a “dead canary”, a poet who categorically does not accept imitation in poetry, not only declares that singing “from the voice of someone else” is destructive for any talent, but also clearly makes it known that he is “not a canary,” imitating Klyuev, that their paths diverged long ago, that the canary in him “died” in his youth; and the self-ironic, harmless lines about his mentor in the poem “In the Caucasus” testify to Yesenin’s creative maturity as a great national poet who has comprehended his significance and place in Russian Parnassus.

About the Authors

I. V. Kudryashov
National Research Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod, Arzamas Branch
Russian Federation

Igor V. Kudryashov, Doctor of Philology, Associate Professor, Professor, Department of Russian Language and Literature

ResearcherID J-7391-2019

Arzamas



S. N. Pyatkin
National Research Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod, Arzamas Branch
Russian Federation

Sergey N. Pyatkin, Doctor of Philology, Professor, Director

ResearcherID J-9796-2016

Arzamas



References

1. Aseev, N. (1922). «Izbyanoy oboz» (O pastusheskom techenii i poezii nashikh dney) [“Izbyanoy wagon train” (On the shepherd’s current and poetry of our days)]. Pechat’ i revolyutsiya [Print and revolution], 8 (noyabr’-dekabr’): 38—45. (In Russ.).

2. Atuprin, Vl. (2003). Pis’ma bespartiynogo. (“Lichno Yavlinskomu”) [Non-party letters. (“Personally to Yavlinsky”)]. Moskva: EPItsentr, Integral-Inform. 895 p. (In Russ.).

3. Bazanov, V. G. (1982). Sergey Esenin i krestyanskaya Rossiya [Sergei Yesenin and peasant Russia]. Leningrad: Sov. pisatel: Leningradskoe otdelenie. 303 p. (In Russ.).

4. Beschinskiy, A. Ya. (1903). Putevoditel po Volge [Volga guide]. Moskva: T-vo I. N. Kushnereva i K. 384 p. (In Russ.).

5. Dolinin, A. A. (2018). Kto zhe skazal «Vse my vyshli iz «Shineli» Gogolya? [Who said, “We all left Gogol’s “Shinel”?]. Russkaya literature [Russian literature], 3: 163—170. (In Russ.).

6. Erlikh, V. I. (1986). Pravo na pesn’ [The right to song]. In: S. A. Esenin v vospominaniyakh sovremennikov [S. A. Yesenin in the memoirs of his contemporaries]. Moskva: Khudozh. lit. 2/2: 319—353. (In Russ.).

7. Esenin, S. A. (1995). Polnoe sobranie sochineniy. Stikhotvoreniya [Full composition of writings. Poems]. Moskva: Nauka; Golos. 7/1: 672 p. (In Russ.).

8. Esenin, S. A. (1997). Polnoe sobranie sochineniy. Stikhotvoreniya (Malenkie poemy) [Full composition of writings. Poems (Small poems)]. Moskva: Nauka ; Golos. 7/2: 464 p. (In Russ.).

9. Esenin, S. A. (1999а). Polnoe sobranie sochineniy. Pis’ma [Full composition of writings. Letters]. Moskva: Nauka; Golos. 7/6: 816 p. (In Russ.).

10. Esenin, S. A. (1999b) Polnoe sobranie sochineniy. Avtobiografii. Darstvennye nadpisi. Folklornye materialy. Literaturnye deklaratsii i manifesty [Full composition of writings. Autobiography. Donation inscriptions. Folklore materials. Literary declarations and manifestos]. Moskva: Nauka; Golos. 7/7 (1): 559 p. (In Russ.).

11. Esenina, A. A. (1986). Rodnoe i blizkoe [Native and close]. In: S. A. Esenin v vospominaniyakh sovremennikov [S. A. Yesenin in the memoirs of his contemporaries]. Moskva: Khudozh. lit. 2/1: 55—125. (In Russ.).

12. Farkhitdinova, O. M. (2003). Ironiya: problema opredeleniya i rol v filosofskom poznanii: PhD Diss. [Irony: the problem of definition and the role in philosophical knowledge PhD Diss.]. Yekaterinburg. 168 p. (In Russ.).

13. Filippov, B. (1969). Nikolay Klyuev: materialy dlya biografii [Nikolay Klyuev: materials for biography]. In: Nikolay Klyuev. Sochineniya [Nikolay Klyuev. Essays]. [Myunkhen]: Neimanis Buchvertrieb und Verlag. 2/1: 7—156. (In Russ.).

14. Gruzinov, I. V. (1986). Esenin. In: S. A. Esenin v vospominaniyakh sovremennikov [S. A. Yesenin in the memoirs of his contemporaries]. Moskva: Khudozh. lit., 1986. 2/1: 351—364. (In Russ.).

15. Kiseleva, L. A. (1997). Esenin i Klyuev: skrytyy dialog (popytka chastichnoy rekonstruktsii) [Yesenin and Klyuev: hidden dialogue (an attempt at partial reconstruction)]. In: Nikolay Klyuev: Issledovaniya i materialy [Nikolay Klyuev: Research and materials]. Moskva: Nasledie. 183—198. (In Russ.).

16. Kudryashov, I. V. (2015). «Svetlaya radost’ spasenya…»: Klyuev i Pushkin [“The bright joy of salvation...”: Klyuev and Pushkin]. In: Boldinskie chteniya 2015: sbornik trudov Mezhdunarodnoy nauchnoy konferentsii [Boldin Readings 2015: Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference]. Saransk. 260—272. (In Russ.).

17. Kudryashov, I. V., Pyatkin, S. N. (2012). O dominiruyushchem religioznom motive ranney liriki Nikolaya Klyueva [On the dominant religious motive in the early lyrics of Nikolai Klyuev]. Mir nauki, kultury, obrazovaniya [The world of science, culture and education], 6 (37): 78—81. (In Russ.).

18. Letopis’ zhizni i tvorchestva S. A. Esenina (1917—1920) [Chronicle of the life and work of S. A. Yesenin (1917—1920)]. (2005). Moskva: IMLI RAN. 5/2: 760 p. (In Russ.).

19. Marks-Mann. (1903). Kurs novykh okhotnich’ikh sekretov, ili Polnaya shkola okhoty na izvestnykh dikikh i na obyknovennykh ptits, kak nuzhno navernyaka bez promakha strelyat’ ikh v let [A course in new hunting secrets, or a complete school of hunting famous wild and common birds, how you must shoot them for sure without a miss]. (7th ed.). Moskva: tipo-lit. I. I. Pashkova. 320 p. (In Russ.).

20. Naumov, E. I. (1973). Sergey Esenin: lichnost’, tvorchestvo, epokha [Sergei Yesenin: personality, creativity, era]. Leningrad: Lenizdat. 455 p. (In Russ.).

21. Subbotin, S. I. (1994). Esenin i Klyuev (K istorii tvorcheskikh vzaimootnosheniy) [Yesenin and Klyuev (On the history of creative relationships)]. In: O, Rus’, vzmakhni krylami… Eseninskiy sbornik [Oh, Russia, flap your wings ... Yeseninsky collection]. Moskva: Nasledie. 104—120. (In Russ.).

22. Subbotin, S. I. (1997). Kommentarii [Comments]. In: Esenin S. A. Polnoe sobranie sochineniy. Stikhotvoreniya (Malenkie poemy) [Yesenin S. A. Complete Works. Poems (Small Poems)]. Moskva: Nauka: Golos. 7/2: 255—461. (In Russ.).

23. Tereshkina, D. B. (2019). Evangelskie obrazy i motivy v pervoy knige «Bratskikh pesen» Nikolaya Klyueva [Gospel images and motives in the first book of “Brothers’ songs” by Nikolai Klyuev]. Problemy istoricheskoy poetiki [The Problems of Historical Poetics], 17 (1): 94—107. DOI 10.15393/j9.art2019.5861. (In Russ.).


Review

For citations:


Kudryashov I.V., Pyatkin S.N. Why Did the Canary Die? (Sergei Yesenin about Nikolai Klyuev). Nauchnyi dialog. 2020;(12):151-162. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.24224/2227-1295-2020-12-151-162

Views: 967


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.


ISSN 2225-756X (Print)
ISSN 2227-1295 (Online)