Between Russia and America: the poetics of David Burliuk’s book «Burliuk Shakes Hands with the Woolworth Building»

The article analyzes the composition and poetics of D. Burliuk’s cycle “Burliuk Shakes Ha nds with the Woolworth Build ing” the first collection published by the poet during his American emigration (1924). The study examines the book as a borderline text that summarizes the “Japanese” period and opens the “American” stage of his work. The auth or argues that the collection’s structure is built as an autobiographical outline, where the poet’s personal fate is projected onto the historical context. Central attention is paid to the intermedial nature of the cycle, the interaction of poetic word and visual art, as well as the opposition of images of Russia and America: Russia is symbolized by the image of a steam lo comotive moving toward freedom, while America is represented by the subway, associated with an underground, almost otherworldly space. Th e scientific novelty of the work lies in the first holistic analysis of the collection’s composition and its role in rethinking Burliuk’s place in the Russian literary canon.