HOMER’S TRADITIONS IN LERMONTOV’S POEM “BORODINO” Cover Image

ГОМЕРОВСКИЕ ТРАДИЦИИ В СТИХОТВОРЕНИИ М. Ю. ЛЕРМОНТОВА «БОРОДИНО»
HOMER’S TRADITIONS IN LERMONTOV’S POEM “BORODINO”

Author(s): Anna Yurievna Nilova
Subject(s): Philology
Published by: Петрозаводский государственный университет
Keywords: Lermontov; Homer; “Borodino”; “Iliad”; image; composition

Summary/Abstract: The issue of the place of Lermontov’s “Borodino” poem among the poetic works devoted to the War of 1812 has frequently been thesubject of research but the problem of Homeric tradition development in this poem has not even been posed. Lermontov divergesfrom the principles indicative for battle descriptions at his time. He transforms the text from the early “Borodino Field” to the later“Borodino” and introduces a modified quote from the “Iliad”, used Homeric techniques of a battle scene construction, a descriptionof its “inside”, understanding the meaning of what was happening, opposes the generations on the principle of belonging to the greathistorical event. The poet discards a direct comparison of the Borodino battle with the great battles of the past, but enters it in theirnumbers only by using artistic means, he seeks to maximize the vividness of the battle, and mythologises it. Outwardly discardingthe seemingly outdated tradition, Lermontov finds new ways for its development.

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