The image of Russia in Paul Durcan’ book of poetry “Going home to Russia”

The article is devoted to the reception of Russia in the poetry book “Going Home to Russia” written by an Irish poet Paul Durcan. Interest in the Russian culture and literature has been increasingly growing since the first decades of the 20th century. This phenomenon is a result of a series of factors, the major of which possibly being that by comparing “their own” and “the other’s” Irish authors can more easily pin down “their own” as reflected in a kind of “negative mirror”. On the bases of “close reading”, the author singles out and describes the specific features of representing Russia in Durcan’s “Russian Poems”. The major specificity is that in Durcan’s poetry the image of Russia is represented antithetically to the existing stereotypes of this country. The book of poetry was published in 1987 when Russia was regarded by the world as a totalitarian state, where people are deprived of rights and freedoms. In the book under analyses, it is Ireland which is shown as the country with no rights and freedoms. Russia was the country of militant atheism but Durcan shows that God lives in the hearts of people there, while in Ireland, with all its army of priests, God has long been dead. The parallels between Ireland and Russia become the key motif of the book. In a number of poems, Russia is depicted in an idyllic way as a place where people are open, pure, and close to nature. At the same time, the author’s vision is ambivalent. He constantly keeps an eye on the Russia of Stalin’s purges and “the party yeti”, as well as the tragic destinies of the Russian artists.