The Dynamic Poetics in the Text History of Lermontov’s Poem “The Dream” Cover Image

Динамическая поэтика в истории текста стихотворения М. Ю. Лермонтова «Сон»
The Dynamic Poetics in the Text History of Lermontov’s Poem “The Dream”

Author(s): Ksenia A. Potashova, Irina Kiseleva
Subject(s): Russian Literature, 19th Century, Theory of Literature
Published by: Петрозаводский государственный университет
Keywords: M. Yu. Lermontov; “The notebook presented by Odoevsky”; clean copy; rough copy; diplomatic transcription; dynamic poetics; dream; death; love;

Summary/Abstract: The article focuses on the analysis of the poetic genesis of Lermontov’s poem “The Dream” (1841) that manifests itself in the author’s corrections in the rough copy and in the clean one. There was carried out a reconstruction of the poet’s creative process, of his work on the contexture and the creation of a completed artistic image. The article presents the transcription of the poem’s rough and clean copies including alterations and symbols of the manuscript. It has been proved that while the first versions in the main text identify three dreams, the final version keeps only two of them. In the course of his work on the text the poet chooses not to introduce the image of a dream into the first poem, but makes it clear that everything is happening in the dream only by means of the title. This technique increases the reality of the given image. In the analysis of the poem’s dynamic poetics a special emphasis is made on the registration of the landscape details changes due to which the poet conveys his perception of the natural world and his place in it as a body and soul creature. The narrator’s feelings of desolation and abandonment in the natural world get worse from the rough copy to the clean one, and at the same time grows his anxiety for the unanimity with his mistress who, as the hero himself, has a spiritual sight. The capacity of the characters for empathy and the experience of bodily death assert the poet’s faith in the immortality of the soul.

  • Issue Year: 18/2020
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 130-145
  • Page Count: 16
  • Language: Russian